The permanent secretariat of WEEC officially announces and invites you to the 12th World Environmental Education Congress.

With great pleasure, we extend a warm, welcoming invitation to people from all over the world to join us at this one-of-a-kind event for an exciting, valuable and unforgettable experience.

Dr Shaikha

Dr Shaikha Salem Al Dhaheri,  Secretary General of the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi officially announces the 12th WEEC

I would like to express my happiness in announcing the selection of the United Arab Emirates to host the twelfth round of the World Conference on Environmental Education in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in 2024. This event will be held under the patronage of His Highness H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD), with the theme “Connecting People, Creating Tomorrow.”

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Organising Committee of WEEC for selecting the UAE. We are so honoured that an event as important as WEEC will be on our home soil, and we will work around the clock to ensure that it is a great success and platform for positive change. I am confident that the UAE, with its advanced and distinguished capabilities, will be able to make this important conference a success and achieve its desired goals. We will strive to support efforts to exchange knowledge and dialogue between specialists and those who are interested in the field of environmental education, from individuals, institutions, networks and alliances.

It is an absolute honour to be here with you at the World Environmental Education Congress 2022 in Prague. 

WEEC is a unique event because it brings together a range of specialists and professionals dedicated to environmental education. We all know that instigating change in communities to adopt environmentally friendly behaviour is only possible through rigorous environmental education. 

We are fortunate in our day and age that governments have started adopting strategies to place the environment very high up on the national agenda. We are also lucky that more individuals in society are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of saving the planet – especially our children.

But we still have a long way to go, and that is why events like WEEC are critical as a sounding board to ensure that environmental education continues across all countries.

The UAE is a country that values the environment greatly, and our leadership provides us with unconditional support so that all environmentalists and organisations can achieve their goals – especially as a woman. And that is why I am very proud to be an Emirati woman working in the field of environment. There are more women joining the field, and I know that several of them in my team decided to pursue this career path because they were inspired through environmental education. This reflects its importance and the only way we can empower the upcoming generations to become advocates and ambassadors for the environment, is by proving them immense access to more knowledge.

In Abu Dhabi, through EAD we have more than 20 years experience in environmental education. We first started in 1999 with our very first Nature Bus and today, EAD is implementing many pioneering environmental awareness programmes in more than 85% of public and private schools in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Throughout the past years, we have received many prestigious awards in recognition and appreciation for our distinguished efforts and innovative programs in the field of environmental awareness. 

On a final note, I invite you all to Abu Dhabi to participate in WEEC in 2024. We await you with open arms and our hearts and minds. We aim to continue the legacy of WEEC, which brings together like-minded individuals who play a very significant role when it comes to environmental education.

Thank you

WATCH VIDEO

Prof. Mario Salomone, Secretary-General of WEEC Network officially invites you to the 12th WEEC

Dear friends from any part of the world, I warmly thank the Environment Agency of Abu Dhabi for hosting the Twelfth World Congress of Environmental Education. Our international network is pleased to engage in the journey towards a new global meeting jointly with the Middle East’s largest environmental regulator committed to protecting and enhancing air quality, groundwater and the biodiversity of Abu Dhabi’s desert and marine ecosystems. 

With the Twelfth WEEC, we also conclude the celebrations of another vital stage: the twenty years since the first congress held in Portugal. A couple of decades ago, a path started.

“Connecting People, Creating Tomorrow” is the title of the congress in 2024. But “Connecting People, Creating Tomorrow” is not only an attractive title.

It is our aim; it is the very reason why we work.

“Connecting people” means building the worldwide community of destiny, for sustainable living on the Earth, our common home.

“Creating tomorrow” is the main task of education, and all education is – or should be – an environmental education. There aren’t any “limits to learning”, according to a seminal report to the Club of Rome published in 1979, and it is excellent news. 

All over the world, at all ages of life – youth, working-age, maturity – people can learn something of new, can discover new and more creative ideas, can decide on a new lifestyle. 

We create the future and invent a better world that is a social and joint undertaking: it happens thanks to a more profound knowledge about the interconnectedness of humankind and our interdependence with nature.

So “Connecting People, Creating Tomorrow” is not only a fascinating title.

It is a choice.

It is a Programme.

I invite you to attend the twelfth world congress in 2024. 

I encourage all researchers, educators, practitioners, or activists worldwide to accept – for winning it - this crucial challenge of connecting people and creating tomorrow. 

I wish to have a Twelfth Congress in Abu Dhabi as a significant lap of the long journey I just said, as a sweet new fruit to add to the tree of the worldwide community of practice and research in environmental education.

To that end, I encourage all initiatives before the congress and all opportunities for networking and debate: I hope it will be prompt since now and widespread.

I put the tools, expertise, and heritage of the WEEC network at your disposal.

Stay in touch, commit yourselves to improving the network, enhancing the environmental education community, and reaching the stage of 2024 more competent and resourceful.

My warmest wishes and greetings and see you in Abu Dhabi for the Twelfth World Environmental Education Congress!

WATCH VIDEO
Mario Invitation

Stay connected and register for updates