INGER-METTE Stenseth, co-founder of the World Climate School, has announced plans to launch a pioneering climate change school in Zimbabwe. The initiative aims to equip young people with the knowledge and skills to address the urgent challenges posed by climate change.
NewsDay reporter Sharon Buwerimwe (ND) caught up with Inger-Mette Stenseths (IMS) to share her vision for the school. Below are excerpts from the interview:
ND: Why have you chosen Zimbabwe as the location for the launch of the climate change school? What factors influenced this decision?
IMS: Climate change is a big topic, we have to look at it like everyday living in life. This is very important and we are saying that the circle economy is the way forward. The way we address it, for example, I work and I am connected to one of the biggest football clubs in Europe, Barcelona that is working with plastic. So we are getting an economy that will be taking away all plastic wastes from all football matches, streets and as an economy that goes back to the community.
I am Norwegian, and I am a co-founder of the World Climate School with a base in Norway, Malta. And my relationship to Zimbabwe goes back all the way to 1993.
So, from the University of Oslo, Norway, we had an exchange program at the time with the University of Harare. So, I was studying media, democracy, local participation for empowerment and change. So, I was already in Chitungwiza in 1993, as a media student, doing my Master's at the University of Oslo, on media and technology. I was probably missing this house at that time, since I was a media student.
But it's a long personal story, the reason why I'm here in Zimbabwe. So, during the COVID, we started kicking off the World Climate School, and we had online participation from all over the world, and also from Zimbabwe.
So, first of all, I would like to say that I'm so happy that I'm here in Zimbabwe, hosting one of the Seven Wonders of the World with the Victoria Falls. I'm just coming back from Victoria Falls and in the big narrative of climate change, we talk about how the desert is taking over, how everything is getting hotter, how the water balance is out of balance, the water cycle is out of balance.
- Zim to launch school of climate change
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I'm so happy and content, and it's like closing a circle, coming back home, to really see that we can do a setup of the World Climate School here in Zimbabwe, with Harare as the address. But we have multiple initiatives going on in Victoria Falls, in Lupane, Bulawayo, and of course, Harare and Chitungwiza, and different initiatives. So, the approach is that we play with culture and the arts and sports to mobilize people's creative empowerment and to understand the very big and waste problems, challenges of climate change and the disruptive, crazy weather patterns.
Reference to Europe, we see that the heavy rainstorms that came in Spain, one year, water, rain, was actually exploding and splashing down for 24 hours in one region. In the United States, in the news today, there are heavy wildfires all over California. So, that's the reality of that complex issue of climate change. And for Zimbabwe, my concern is about wildlife and the desertification and the drought. So, how can we as humans really adapt? And that is what I'm saying, let's come together. Everyone, how can we learn together? We start with children and youth, but of course, it's just as much the adults, the seniors, the leaders, the executive leadership of enterprises in Zimbabwe or at the political level or at the NGO level. Everybody has to come together in a multi-stakeholder approach.
ND: Can you tell us more about the location of the school? Is it based here in Harare, or are there plans for additional campuses in other parts of the country or region?
IMS: Zimbabwe is very personal to me.
So, it is that I have been working with business investment conferences for Zimbabwe in Oslo in the early 90s, in 1994, and also in Bulawayo Business Investment Forum, the tourism investment in the Nordic countries; I was organizing these conferences in early 90s. And we had a company that my husband became, called African Heritage in Oslo. So, my daughter is half Zimbabwean and she's 26 years old.
It was also the reason why I am here. I'm bringing her back home to see, to experience Zimbabwe and to see her cultural roots and her heritage and the African wildlife and life in general. So, I'm here on a very personal journey. It's a life journey.
However, I have been working in Kenya. So, I'm connected and signed. I'm working with a network of 30 universities and colleges in Eastern Africa, all the way down to Zimbabwe. So, it's called the Eastern African Campuses and Colleges Green Network.
ND: Who will be eligible to attend the school? Are you targeting specific age groups, communities, or educational backgrounds?
IMS: It is a youth initiative in more than 30 universities now. So, that is huge because I'm concerned about youth empowerment and innovation. I don't call it necessarily a green innovation because there's so much green washing.
I have already, two years back, started to initiate a climate empowerment week for young people in Zimbabwe and I put my eyes on Victoria Falls. In Europe, I'm working on Erasmus project funding and it's not only on a master level like university level. We're talking about non-formal education.
So, the non-formal education can be like a sporting club engaging in recycling of plastic. It can be a sporting club recycling clothes because I'm saying recycling is part of the big, big, big umbrella of climate change, we have a circular economy. In nature; there is nothing such as waste. It goes in a circle.
ND: Beyond Zimbabwe, has the World Climate School opened any other institutions in Africa or other continents? How do you plan to expand the reach of climate education globally?
IMS: Besides being the founder of the Zimbabwean Environment Climate Change Education Trust in Zimbabwe,-I'm the founder of the World Climate School in Norway and in the United States. So, what we are doing right now is to establish ourselves in a process now towards 2025 where I am hoping to come, I will be coming back in March to organize a training course and be part of a conference on sustainability, climate change, business innovation, energy transition.
Towards 2026, we are trying to design a conference here in Zimbabwe in Victoria Falls for young people to empower young people to youth employment summit generation, like how can we really create jobs? How can we get funding behind our ideas? It has to be empowerment of a new transition.
So, my co-funder in Norway is working in Brazil, working with an empowerment to understand climate change.
ND: So going back to Zimbabwe, the Climate Change School -when is it going to be launched?
IMS: We are launching it between April and March 2025. We are preparing the ground all the way to 2026. I write applications for Erasmus.
I also craft projects like five European countries and five European African countries so that young people can work together online and collaborate. The World Climate School, we are doing online training to understand the complexity and we are connected to networks of 500,000 youths. It's called the Global Youth Coalition.
My hope is to launch a solution, even from Zimbabwe, on biodiversity, wildlife. We need to understand how we can tackle climate change. Climate change can actually come from Southern Africa, where we can feel the burden of taking care of the Big Five and all the wildlife and all the biodiversity that exists. So, it's a partnership with nature.
ND: Can you tell us more about the location of the school? Is it based here in Harare, or are there plans for additional campuses in other parts of the country or region?
IMS: Zimbabwe is very personal to me.
So, it is that I have worked with business investment conferences for Zimbabwe in Oslo in the early 90s, in 1994, and also in Bulawayo Business Investment Forum, the tourism investment in the Nordic countries; I was organising these conferences in early 90s. And we had a company that my husband called African Heritage in Oslo. So, my daughter is half Zimbabwean and she's 26 years old.
It is also the reason why I am here now that I'm bringing her back home to see, to experience Zimbabwe and to see her cultural roots and her heritage and the African wildlife and life in general. So, I'm here on a very personal journey. It's a life journey.
We are currently launching the online school, an innovative step in making sure that it is accessible and adaptable. So it is still a work in progress. We will later launch a physical school, as I am now back to do the feasibility study and explore the best way forward here in Zimbabwe.
However, I have been working in Kenya. So, I'm connected throughout Africa. I'm working with a network of 30 universities and colleges in eastern Africa, all the way down to Zimbabwe.
So, it's called the Eastern African Campuses and Colleges Green Network.
ND: Who will be eligible to attend the school? Are you targeting specific age groups, communities or educational backgrounds?
IMS: It is a youth initiative in more than 30 universities now. So, that is huge because I'm concerned about youth empowerment and innovation. I do not call it necessarily a green innovation because there's so much green washing. There are also blue innovations, as it refers to ocean, water and food security on multiple levels. Thus, our focus is on the circular economy in multiple industries.
I have already, two years back, started to initiate a climate empowerment week for young people in Zimbabwe and I put my eyes on Victoria Falls. In Europe, I'm working on Erasmus Plus youth project funding and it's not only on a master level like university level. We're talking about non-formal education.
So, the non-formal education can be like a sporting club engaging in recycling of plastic. It can be a sporting club recycling clothes because I'm saying recycling, reducing and up cycling are part of the big, big, big umbrella of climate change, we have it coined as circular economy vs the waste creating economy that is linear. In nature; there is nothing such as waste. It goes in a circle. In this perspective waste can be our wealth, and very directly our wealth as well.
ND: Beyond Zimbabwe, has the World Climate School opened any other institutions in Africa or other continents? How do you plan to expand the reach of climate education globally?
IMS: Besides being the founder of the Zimbabwean Environment Climate Change Education Trust in Zimbabwe, I’m the founder of the World Climate School in Norway and in the United States. We work in many European countries on youth projects, and beyond that in countries like India, Pakistan, and Peru. Online training and awareness go fast across many nations worldwide, and the new generations learn faster than ever. With AI we can see that solutions can come faster forward, by integrated climate solutions, critical thinking and economy, to local challenges. So, what we are doing right now is to establish ourselves in a process now towards 2025. We are pre-launching our work in Vic Falls during the International Conference and Expo on Renewable Energy, 4 - 7 March, and will bring international partners and our network from Nordic countries as well from around the world.
Towards 2026, also in March, we will bring an international climate conference to Zimbabwe in Victoria Falls for young people to empower young people for youth employment generation, like how can we really create jobs? How can we get funding behind our ideas? It has to be empowerment to a new transition of a low carbon society, where also Nature-based Solutions will be addressed for regenerative approaches, smart agriculture, holistic wildlife and biodiversity management. Climate Finance must be at the heart of the energy transition, and we will all need to learn and in many ways go back to school.
So, my co-funder for World Climate School, Norway is working in Brazil, working towards empowerment to understand climate change and the water cycle, and we hope to bring these perspectives from Vic Falls to COP30 in Brazil, in 2025.
ND: So going back to Zimbabwe, the Climate Change School, when is it going to be launched?
IMS: We are preparing the ground all the way to 2026 in a private-public partnership. I write applications for Erasmus. I also craft projects like five European countries and five European African countries so that young people can work together online and collaborate. My hope is that we in this way can connect different nations and university students across Africa with universities and NGOs in Europe. I am on the board of both Norwegian Climate Network and Green Cross Sweden, and we are preparing to connect youth from the age of 14 - 34 in these projects. This might include training of trainers, teachers, and a vocational training approach for technical universities.
The World Climate School, we are doing online training to understand the complexity and we are connected to networks of 500 000 youths. It's called the Global Youth Coalition, and we are represented at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan through these networks. It is a lot of probing investments at this stage, setting the stage for accelerated learning for all, and Sustainable Development Goal number 4, on education and number 13 on Climate Change. We bring these new and innovative partnerships to Zimbabwe in an integrated way.
My hope is to launch the solution for desertification, from Zimbabwe, biodiversity and wildlife is a narrative with peace with nature in a holistic approach to management. We need to understand how we can tackle climate change from a water and soil perspective, to launch it from Zimbabwe and Vic Falls. The world, and climate activists need these stories, and to bring common sense and a way forward to common people to understand the important role each one of us play.
It must be ordinary and it is all about joy, like in the joy and in the entertainment we find in watching a football match. The difference is that it will be imperative to bring gender balance to the game.
Creative, collaborative solutions to climate change can actually come from southern Africa and Zimbabwe as a nation bringing it to the world. Here we can feel the burden of taking care of the Big Five and all the wildlife and all the biodiversity that exists. So in conclusion, it's a partnership with nature, and it is a narrative of the circle of peace and to clean up pollution of rivers, drinking water and the air we breathe. When it comes to the reality of climate change it is about health for humans, animals and life on the planet. When the real burden of climate change hits us, our joy will be gone - so in this way we champion climate change with joy, dance for our wins and celebrate the positive steps we can take in the right directions.
