Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) is a term adopted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It refers to Article 6 of the Convention’s original text (1992), focusing on six priority areas: education, training, public awareness, public participation, public access to information, and international cooperation on these issues. The implementation of all six areas has been identified in recent years as the pivotal factor for everyone to understand and participate in solving the complex challenges presented by climate change.
The Action for Climate Empowerment: Guidelines for accelerating solutions through education, training and public awareness are intended to facilitate the work of National Focal Points (NFPs) to implement ACE activities in their countries. This publication can also be useful to other policy-makers and members of civil society organizations (CSOs) seeking the means to address climate change.
The guidelines provide a flexible, phased approach to the strategic and systematic implementation of ACE activities at the national level, driven by each country’s circumstances. The guidelines build upon guidance published previously to support national level implementation of ACE from UNESCO and UN CC:Learn, drawing particularly on the rich experience of GAP on ESD. To illustrate, activities exemplifying ACE implementation are provided from more than 20 countries in all regions of the world.