Abstract:

The 2030 Agenda adopted in 2015 by the UN General Assembly is a new global framework for Sustainable Development. At the core of the 2030 Agenda are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals cover global challenges that are crucial for the prosperity of humanity. These SDGs address key topics as poverty, hunger, health and well-being, inequality, availability of water, affordable, sustainable and clean energy for all, sustainable economic growth, unsustainable consumption patterns, sustainable industrialization, environmental degradation, climate change, and so on. At University, students can acquire knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that will empower them to contribute to sustainable development. Teachers should not only help students to understand what the SDGs are about, but engage them in collaborating, speaking up and acting for positive change in order to face the necessary transformation of our world. SDG 13–to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impact plays an essential role in the sustainable development of our planet. The target 13.3 of this SDG is to improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning. In order to address SDG 13 students participated in a questionnaire. A very high percentage (91.2%) reported that they were aware that climate change is a global problem with important consequences that affect the climate, the economy and, therefore, people's lives, and 88.2% said that each individual can take actions to mitigate climate change. In addition, 38.2% stated that they do not have enough arguments to explain why the adoption of a wide range of technological measures and changes in behavior could limit the increase in the global average temperature to 2 ºC above pre-industrial levels. The latter indicates that much remains to be done in environmental and technical education. In order to comprehend SDG 13, knowledge of meteorological phenomena close to the student is necessary. In early January 2021, Spain experienced one of the heaviest snowfalls in several decades because of Storm Filomena. In order to work with the students on the transversal competence “knowledge of contemporary problems” and SDG 13, an activity was prepared entitled: Is Filomena, one more effect of climate change? The questionnaire and the Filomena activity included cognitive, socio-emotional and behavioural learning objectives (e.g. identify the main ecological, social, cultural and economic consequences of climate change, recognize that the protection of the global climate is an essential task for everyone, understand their personal impact on the world’s climate, support climate-friendly economic activities).

Keywords:

SDG, sustainable development, climate change, education for sustainability, Higher Education, University.