Environment and Climate
Climate education for 21,466 UBC students every four years
Juliana de Paula Janot's campaign got 6 UBC Faculties and Schools to commit to climate education in required courses, which she calculates at 21,466 students every four years, and she co-founded Climate Education for All to take the model to other universities.
She taught herself filmmaking, she says, and "headed to the Bolivian jungle with backpacks, a low budget, borrowed equipment and a mission". The mission was a documentary, "Golden Crimes, Silver Scars", about mercury poisoning from illegal mining. Juliana de Paula Janot had spent part of her gap year living with Amazonian Indigenous peoples, where she witnessed mercury contamination in fish, the main protein source in the riverine diet. Some community members, she says, reached contamination levels 20x higher than the acceptable threshold. They asked her for support, and she decided to raise awareness in the international media community. The film is in post-production.
Her other work is at the University of British Columbia, her university. She built a team, which expanded to 54 volunteers over the life of the campaign, and started a campaign demanding that all UBC programs incorporate climate education into required courses. They surveyed 2700 students and found support above 90%, lobbied dozens of Deans and Professor allies, and got 6 Faculties and Schools to commit. By her latest calculation, based on 2026 enrollment data, that means 21,466 students educated every four years. "These numbers are only what we achieved so far," she says.
“It brings me hope to see that CEFA's movement for the expansion of climate education is helping students realize their grassroots power in catalyzing policy change and climate action.”
Juliana de Paula Janot
The impact of CEFA's campaigns goes beyond curriculum reform. They also develop climate leaders, she says, because volunteers gain skills and hands-on experience in climate action strategising, lobbying and advocacy.
CEFA is Climate Education for All, which she co-founded to spread the movement to more universities: a coordinated network providing training, pre-made resources, individualized mentorship, and a peer-learning community for students to lead climate education campaigns in their own universities. Through the first edition of CEFA’s ambassadors programme, she has recruited and trained 12 student leaders who are starting campaigns at 9 universities across Canada and Germany. "What makes CEFA rad? The multiplier effect," she says.
The start of it was much earlier. "Growing up in Brazil, I felt heartbroken witnessing homeless children and deforestation of the cherished rainforests of my country, and I felt a lifetime commitment to making change," she says.
Back at UBC, "our campaign is ongoing and we're working with more UBC Faculties to get them on board," she says.