Do you want to find out how nature can help in protecting people from disasters and solving the climate crisis? Then this free online course is for you!

Learn what young people and teachers, policy makers, practitioners, businesses and engineers can do to get involved in our race against the climate emergency.

The course is free. A UNEP certificate will be issued to all participants who successfully complete the course. However, fees for obtaining the EdX certificate may apply.

Who is the course aimed at?

Nature offers many solutions to reduce the impacts of disasters and climate change, such as protecting forests on steep slopes, maintaining sand dunes along coastline and wetlands to buffer excess rainwater. In this course, find out how people around the world are building resilience to disasters and climate change impacts through Nature-based Solutions.

This course will help you understand how to apply these Nature-based Solutions that restore or protect natural or modified ecosystems and biodiversity and allow for their sustainable management. Nature-based Solutions for increasing disaster and climate resilience are relevant to everybody and each of us can take some actions – small or large in promoting them. With this in mind, the introductory module is designed to be accessible to everyone, whatever your level of experience or your background.

The course is open to everyone who would like to deepen their knowledge of the application of NbS and are targeted at specific groups, namely:

• Practitioners: Risk reduction & climate change experts, environmental managers, NGOs, and local government.
• Policy makers:Decision makers at international, national, and local levels.
• Engineers & Urban planners: Including architects, geographers and urban designers.
• Businesses: Including banking, insurance, and Corporate Social Responsibility managers.
• Youth and educators: Parents, teachers, students

There are no prerequisites, just an interest to learn more about how you can make a difference!

Details:

• Location: SDG Academy/ EdX platform
• Course Length: Access 3-6 hours of self-paced content depending on your level of interest
• Languages Offered: English, French, Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, and Indonesian
• Course Contents:

  Unit 1: Why is this topic relevant for me?

  Unit 2: What are Nature-based Solutions for disaster and climate resilience?

  Unit 3: Nature-based Solutions applied to pressing challenges: urbanization, coastal development, and drylands expansion

  Unit 4: Inclusive Action: The importance of youth, communities and indigenous people in Nature-based Solutions

  Unit 5: From policy to practice

  Unit 6: The business case for Nature-based Solutions

  Unit 7: Time for action!