Neoenergia and UNICEF strengthen curricula focusing on climate change, energy efficiency and waste reuse
Neoenergia signed on Friday (12) a partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to support educational and environmental actions in public schools in Bahia, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte and the Federal District. The company will donate about R$ 4.5 million to the Fund, through the Energy Efficiency Programme, regulated by the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel). The initiative, focused on learning about climate change, energy efficiency and waste reuse, will promote the training of four thousand teachers and will benefit about 120 thousand students in 500 educational units in the regions involved.
The partnership will last for three years. Throughout this period, pedagogical materials and continuing education strategies will be developed for pre-school and primary school teachers; systematisation activities and exchange of good practices will be carried out. The project focuses on the socio-environmental agenda and is aligned with the National Common Core Curriculum (NCCB) for topics related to climate change, energy efficiency and waste reuse.
The activities contribute to the achievement of the targets set by Sustainable Development Goal 13 (SDG 13) on taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
The signing of the partnership took place at Neoenergia's headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. Present for the company were CEO Eduardo Capelastegui; Vice President of Regulation, Institutional and Sustainability, Solange Ribeiro; Director of Institutional and Government Relations, João Paulo Neves Baptista Rodrigues; and Superintendent of Energy Efficiency, Ana Mascarenhas. Youssouf Abdel-Jelil represented UNICEF Brazil.
"We believe that educational initiatives help raise awareness of the importance of energy efficiency and climate change. We are committed to improving people's quality of life and contributing to the sustainable development of the planet. The partnership with UNICEF allows us to reach these young people, raising awareness about this process and creating sustainable alternatives that can be replicated in the communities where they live," said Eduardo Capelastegui, CEO of Neoenergia.
"Educating children, adolescents and young people for the 21st century necessarily involves talking about climate change. As a society, we have to rethink the school and have concrete curricula and learning on how to change and preserve the planet for this and the next decades and generations. That's why we are happy with this partnership," says Mônica Dias Pinto, UNICEF Brazil's Chief of Education.
Partnership
The partnership between Neoenergia and UNICEF has existed since 2014 through investments in projects. Between 2014 and 2016, the company donated R$ 1 million to develop actions in the areas of operation of Neoenergia Coelba (BA), Neoenergia Cosern (RN) and Neoenergia Pernambuco (PE). There were 375 municipalities benefited through the training of 1,767 multipliers of the concepts of sustainable, efficient and safe use of electricity.
In 2015, UNICEF held the 50-day exhibition "Enlightenment: light for every life, light for every life", which was visited by 10,433 people in four Brazilian capitals: Salvador, Recife, Natal and Rio de Janeiro. The three distributors in the Northeast donated R$ 397,000 to the project. Another exhibition, "Life at stake", portrayed in 2016 the difficulty of students to get to school in the semi-arid region. Neoenergia Coelba and Neoenergia Pernambuco made a joint donation of R$ 284 thousand.
Between 2017 and 2022, a total of R$ 7.7 million was raised in energy bills, which supported projects in 15 municipalities in Pernambuco, involving 385 schools with the training of 3,495 professionals and 70 thousand students benefited, in improving the quality of basic education.