Latest News: LIAT at Love & Rage, London 14/09/2026

Supporting UN SDG 13.3

"Build Knowledge and Capacity to Meet Climate Change"

The League for the International Appreciation of Trees (LIAT) is proud to contribute to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13.3, which calls for the improvement of education and awareness of climate change issues to work towards mitigating threats, reducing impact, and adapting to changes.

We believe that building knowledge around the importance of trees is an essential part of preparing people and communities to understand and respond to environmental and climate challenges.

Trees are crucial to mitigating the effects of climate change; maintaining good biodiversity; ensuring the good distribution of natural resources; and for overall wellbeing of humans and wildlife.

Helping people understand how trees are closely connected to these issues means that the current and future generations can understand more about the nature around them, develop an interest in environmental protection, and overall be more eco-conscious so that we can collectively protect the planet going forward.

Education for Sustainable Development

Climate Change Awareness

Building Human Capacity

Making Knowledge Accessible

Strengthening Institutions through Collaboration

Fostering an Eco-Conscious Generation

Education for Sustainable Development

One of the UN's indicators for Target 13.3 considers the extent to which global citizenship education and education for sustainable development are incorporated into education policies, curricula, teacher education and student assessment.

LIAT hopes to contribute to this objective by encouraging environmental and sustainability education to become a meaningful part of people's learning, particularly during childhood and adolescence.

Our aim is not simply to provide information about individual tree species. We want to encourage a broader understanding of the relationships between trees, people and the environment.

Learning about trees can introduce young people to concepts including ecosystems, biodiversity, natural resources, climate, environmental stewardship and the interdependence of living organisms. In this way, knowledge about trees can contribute to a wider foundation of education for sustainable development.

In the longer term, LIAT hopes to support efforts to make environmental understanding an increasingly natural part of education rather than something encountered only through occasional environmental activities.

Climate Change Awareness

SDG 13.3 specifically identifies climate-change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning as areas in which education and awareness should be strengthened.

LIAT's contribution begins with helping people understand the natural systems around them.

Greater awareness of trees and ecosystems can help people understand why healthy natural environments matter and how environmental changes can affect wildlife, communities and human societies. We hope that this knowledge can provide a foundation from which people can develop a deeper understanding of climate change and the importance of responding to it.

We also recognise that climate change is a complex subject extending far beyond trees alone. LIAT therefore sees tree education as part of a wider environmental education landscape, and welcomes collaboration with organisations and individuals whose expertise covers other aspects of climate and sustainability.

Building Human Capacity

SDG 13.3 does not focus solely on awareness. It also refers to human and institutional capacity.

For LIAT, this means helping create an environment in which people have the knowledge and understanding necessary to engage meaningfully with environmental challenges.

The UN's Action for Climate Empowerment framework identifies education, training, public awareness, public participation, public access to information and international cooperation as interconnected components of this work.

LIAT hopes to contribute particularly through the development and sharing of accessible environmental knowledge, while working with organisations and individuals who possess complementary skills and expertise.

By sharing knowledge between educators, environmental organisations, communities and other institutions, we can help strengthen the collective capacity to communicate environmental issues clearly and effectively.

Making Knowledge Accessible

Access to understandable information is an important part of climate empowerment. The UNFCCC identifies public access to information as one of the six elements of Action for Climate Empowerment and emphasises the importance of information being accessible so that people can engage meaningfully with climate issues.

LIAT therefore aims to make environmental knowledge free, accessible and understandable to as wide an audience as possible.

We believe that environmental education should not be restricted to people who already have specialist knowledge or access to expensive educational resources. Information should be presented in ways that encourage curiosity and allow people to develop their understanding progressively.

Our work seeks to make trees a welcoming entry point into environmental education, allowing people to begin with something familiar and gradually discover the much wider ecological and climatic systems of which trees are part.

Strengthening Institutions through Collaboration

Environmental education is most effective when knowledge and expertise can be shared between different organisations and communities.

The UNFCCC's Action for Climate Empowerment framework specifically recognises international cooperation as one of its six elements, alongside education, training, public awareness, public participation and access to information.

LIAT therefore hopes to build relationships with organisations around the world that can contribute different knowledge, experience and perspectives.

Through collaboration, environmental educators, charities, schools, environmental organisations, researchers, community groups and other institutions can strengthen one another's work and develop a wider collective capacity for environmental education.

For LIAT, international cooperation is particularly important because environmental challenges do not stop at national borders. Knowledge and educational resources should be able to travel across them as well.

Fostering an Eco-Conscious Generation

Ultimately, LIAT hopes to contribute to a world in which people have a stronger understanding of the natural systems upon which life depends.

We believe that developing this understanding from an early age can help establish the knowledge and awareness needed for people to engage thoughtfully with environmental and climate challenges throughout their lives.

Our contribution to SDG 13.3 is therefore centred on education, awareness, access to knowledge, capacity-building and collaboration.

We recognise that LIAT is one organisation within a much larger global effort. We do not claim to fulfil SDG 13.3 on our own, nor can education alone resolve the challenges of climate change.

Instead, we hope to contribute to the collective effort by helping people learn, encouraging institutions to share knowledge, supporting environmental awareness and building connections between those working towards a more environmentally knowledgeable world.

Through this work, LIAT aims to help advance the spirit and objectives of SDG 13.3: building the knowledge and capacity needed to meet climate change.