CRADALL Director Anna Wilson gave the opening presentation at the recent Climate Horizon 2040 conference, arguing for the central role of adult, lifelong and community learning in responding to climate change in Scotland.

On 24^th January 2025, Scotland’s ClimateXChange ran Climate Horizon 2040 at the John McIntyre Centre in Edinburgh. With Scotland’s next Climate Change Plan due to cover the period to 2040, Scotland is at a critical point for climate action to reach net zero and build climate resilience. The aim of this invitation-only event was to generate ideas and insights on emerging research and developments that can inform realistic and achievable climate policy in Scotland in the 2030s and 2040s.

CRADALL Director Anna Wilson gave the opening presentation to an audience of around 100 delegates representing research, industry, policy and the third sector. Her presentation, entitled Climate Imaginaries and Public Pedagogies for Realistic Transitions, set the tone for the day as simultaneously realistic, optimistic and action-oriented.

Building on insights from various CRADALL projects, Anna argued for the critical importance of viewing climate and decarbonisation communication as pedagogical activities that should be deliberately designed to empower people to make informed choices between realistically attainable futures.

The day continued with a series of panel discussions and interactive workshops focused on different elements of the portfolio of actions needed to meet Scotland’s Net Zero aspirations. The critical importance of adult, lifelong and community learning to many of these became increasingly clear as the conference unfolded. There is already a widespread recognition of the need to align FE and apprenticeship curricula with emerging skills needs. There is also shared understanding of the need to facilitate entrepreneurialism skills development and capacities to create new opportunities in a future decarbonised economy. Adult, lifelong and community learning are also important in other ways, especially in creating the conditions for just transitions. It will be essential to promote the development and normalising of climate literacies to enable local, place-based adaptation. Similarly, pedagogical strategies are needed to develop understandings of the consequences of embracing or rejecting specific technological decarbonisation actions.

One thing is clear: as global climate change continues and even accelerates, we cannot afford to rely on schools-based education creating a society of informed, action-oriented people in the future – change is inevitable, and it is today’s adults who are making decisions about whether that change is something we choose and take control of.