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Learning and Education in the Time of Climate Overshoot
by Marite Irvine
So what?
So what?
The United Nations Environment Programme released a September 2026 report that the world is entering the era of “climate overshoot,” where global warming now exceeds the 1.5°C temperature threshold for all countries, pushing climate risks and impacts to dangerous new heights (UNEP, 2026). This places the Philippines, which scores highest on the 2025 World Risk Index, at the forefront of greater harms due to vulnerability and exposure (Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft & Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict, 2024).
While most Filipinos have now been conditioned to expect extreme heat and stronger, more frequent typhoons, there are emerging, secondary effects that are less anticipated: haze from potential forest fires, food and water shortages, mobility disruptions, nutrition-related diseases and outbreaks like malaria or dengue (Wai et al., 2026). All these have direct impacts on education and the work of students, teachers and learning ecosystems as a whole.
Photo: GMA News
Given the extent of the country’s learning crisis, class suspensions cannot be the sole response. In the first semester of 2026 alone, DepEd records reveal that some schools have had about 20 to 40 days of instructional loss between June to August due to weather and disaster-related disturbances (Philippine News Agency, 2026).
While educational protocols and responses for climate emergencies are already in place—including the Learning Continuity Framework (DepEd Order No. 14, s. 2026), the AI-aided geohazard tracking platform Project Ligtas+, and a proposed reform to EO 66 (s. 2012) that would allow school-level authorities to suspend classes based on local conditions—these measures are primarily designed to support adaptation to immediate crises.
In the era of Climate Overshoot, a resilient education system that protects and advances any effort to improve learning outcomes will require not just near-term adaptation but also mitigation of temperature rise (and its impacts)–at the same time. This is radical because it means simultaneous actions such as teaching climate literacy, increasing greening projects, building resilient schools that cut carbon emissions. The climate and education crises are intertwined and, given their complexity, reversing their risks will require an integrated, cross-sectoral, whole-of-nation response.
What if?
What if?
What if among the futures of education, one scenario succeeds in applying integrated solutions to climate and education issues in our schools?
What would living in this version of the future look like and feel like? What would learning look like in such a future?
How are we called to respond to this possible future scenario in the here and now?
Reference
Reference
Aung, H. W., Kliengchuay, W., Niampradit, S., Aendo, P., Aye, T. S., Intrakun, S., Arthan, D.,
Koompapong, K., Lin, T.-H., Vardoulakis, S., Lung, S.-C. C., & Tantrakarnapa, K. (2026).
Heat-related health impacts in ASEAN countries: A scoping review. Environmental and Sustainability Indicators, 30, 101272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indic.2026.101272
Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft & Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (2025).
WorldRiskReport 2025.
Sevillano, S. (2026, September 3). DepEd eyes new EO to modernize class suspensions,
resumptions. Philippine News Agency.
United Nations Environment Programme (2026). Limiting Overshoot: Navigating exceedance of 1.5°C and pathways towards return. https://doi.org/10.59117/20.500.11822/49857
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