13.3.1 : Local education programmes on climate
Provide local education programmes or campaigns on climate change risks, impacts, mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) demonstrated its proactive role in advancing climate literacy and environmental awareness through a school outreach programme titled “UTM Pupuk Kesedaran Perubahan Iklim dan Alam Sekitar kepada Pelajar Sekolah.” The initiative was designed to enhance students’ understanding of climate change phenomena, environmental degradation, and sustainable adaptation strategies. Conducted through hands-on workshops, demonstrations, and interactive discussions, the programme introduced young participants to the scientific principles behind climate change, greenhouse gas effects, and the importance of ecosystem preservation in mitigating local climate risks.
By identifying gaps in early environmental education, the programme developed a targeted learning framework that bridges scientific knowledge and practical action. Students were encouraged to model real-world environmental challenges—such as waste accumulation, deforestation, and urban heat islands—and to explore potential futures with and without intervention. The initiative also promoted community-driven environmental stewardship, emphasizing actions such as tree planting, recycling, and water conservation as mitigation pathways.
The outcomes were monitored through participant feedback and behavioural observations, forming a basis for adaptive enhancement in future sessions. This initiative illustrates UTM’s commitment to climate resilience education, nurturing a generation equipped with awareness and responsibility to act on the escalating impacts of climate change. Through localized engagement, UTM continues to translate national sustainability policies into tangible community outcomes aligned with SDG 13.3 – Climate Action Education and Outreach.
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International Bootcamp Citizen Science at Hutan Rekreasi UTM: A Hands-On Experience in Environmental Stewardship, 2024.
In October 2024, UTM hosted an international citizen-science boot camp at its Hutan Rekreasi campus, bringing together participants from diverse backgrounds to engage in hands-on field modules including iNaturalist biodiversity mapping, bird-watching, water-quality testing, and eco-printing with natural elements.
This initiative embodies a local-education programme that directly addresses climate-related issues: by equipping participants with empirical observation skills and environmental stewardship mind-sets, the boot camp strengthens awareness of ecosystem change, strengthens community capacity in monitoring indicators of climate-stress (such as water quality and species shifts) and promotes collaborative learning for mitigation and adaptation.
Importantly, by training participants as “train-the-trainer” (future facilitators) in citizen-science techniques, the programme ensures scalability and local ownership: those trained can return to their home contexts to initiate early-warning routines (e.g., monitoring water quality or species indicators) and help reduce the impact of climate change through informed local action.
Through this experiential learning model, UTM demonstrates how local education can bridge high-level climate-risk discourse and grassroots action. The boot camp transforms participants into environmental stewards, capable of recognising climate-driven stressors in their local ecosystems, initiating adaptation practices (such as monitoring and responding to changing biodiversity or water-quality trends), and supporting impact-reduction pathways via community-based science.
In summary, UTM’s International Citizen Science Boot Camp stands as a strong example of a local education programme that advances climate-change awareness, fosters practical mitigation and adaptation skills, and builds early-warning and impact-reduction capacities within the local community.
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UTM bersama Masjid Taman Sri Pulai membentuk komuniti selamat
In December 2024, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), through the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, collaborated with Masjid Taman Sri Pulai to organise the “Program Komuniti Kejiranan Selamat dan Sejahtera” at the mosque’s community hall in Skudai. The programme focused on strengthening neighbourhood well-being through awareness, safety culture and community-level preparedness activities. The event involved residents, mosque committees and local stakeholders, and was officiated with the aim of fostering a community that is more informed, proactive and collaborative in managing local risks.
Although framed around community safety, the programme’s educational approach is directly relevant to climate-related challenges increasingly affecting local residential areas. Heavy rainfall, flash flooding, waste-clogged drainage and urban-heat effects are risk factors that intersect with neighbourhood safety. By bringing residents together for workshops and discussions on vigilance, environmental cleanliness and emergency response readiness, the programme indirectly strengthens community literacy related to impact-reduction and early-warning behaviour. Encouraging residents to monitor their surroundings, maintain shared green spaces and report hazards aligns with climate-adaptation principles at the community scale.
Activities emphasising safe neighbourhood environments, collective responsibility and sustained communication channels contribute to the foundations required for local climate-risk response. The presence of trained facilitators, community leaders and structured learning components builds social capital that can be mobilised during climate-related disturbances. In this sense, the programme functions as a practical local education platform that enhances preventive culture, promotes community-wide awareness campaigns and improves adaptive capacity.
Through this collaborative effort, UTM demonstrates how higher education institutions can translate academic expertise into local empowerment. By embedding learning in community settings, UTM supports the reduction of climate-related impacts, enhances readiness for environmental disruptions and enables early-warning behaviour through strengthened community networks.
Source:
https://news.utm.my/2024/12/utm-bersama-masjid-taman-sri-pulai-membentuk-komuniti-selamat/
