site.btaBulgarian Educational Portal on Climate Change Presented at COP29 in Baku

The climate change informational and educational portal Klimadapt was presented at the Bulgarian pavilion of SOR29 in Baku by its creator, Kliment Minzhov.

The portal is intended for the dissemination of information, training of students, teachers and the general public, as well as for the organization of civil projects and campaigns dedicated to overcoming and adapting to climate change. The site is a product of the "Changing along with the Climate" project, implemented by seven Bulgarian schools, two non-governmental organizations, Bulgarian and Norwegian, and the Ministry of Environment and Water. It is carried out with the support of the Environment Protection and Climate Change Programme through EEA Grants (2014-2021), said Minzhov.

Klimadapt contains a large number of various articles, over 50 videos, over two hundred different activities recommended for work in class or in extracurricular activities, as well as by civil organizations, Mindzhov told BTA.

The platform also includes lesson plans, worksheets, experiments, tests, games, instructions on how to organize activities, etc., which provide opportunities support the learning process or organize a variety of activities related to mitigation or adaptation to the coming climate changes.

The informative and educational texts in the portal reflect facts and data from various international and Bulgarian sources, such as the European Commission, the European Environment Agency, NASA, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the World Bank, the Ministry of Environment and Water of the Republic of Bulgaria, the Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe, materials from international media, etc.

The portal was created by an international collective,  colleagues and associates of Minzhov, who worked for 18 years at the Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe in Budapest as the head of the educational centre. This is the first multimedia educational portal of its kind in Bulgaria, its creator pointed out. Years ago, Minzhov also developed the Green Package, recognized as one of the 25 best educational products for the environment and sustainable development.

The new product and the programmes created for it received the approval of the Ministry of Education and Science, Mindzhov told BTA. Three programmes have been approved by the ministry: on climate change and environmental components, impact of climate change on economic sectors and impact of climate change on health.

Many teachers from the seven schools involved in the project worked on its development, Mindzhov said. They are from seven different regions of the country, and the aim was to see the impact of climate change in different places and how it affects their specific activities. The site also has a virtual library with many materials related to the environment. It is easy to work with, on each page there is a guide on how to use the materials and the whole product, said the creator of the project. He added that the Ministry of Education and Science is promoting this type of training for teachers. 

The portal is multidisciplinary, it can be used in science lessons, class activities, he noted, adding that it can also be internationalized, and that there is already interest from Azerbaijan. 

The project aims to promote Bulgaria's national strategy for adapting to climate change, he specified. The portal contains not only important information and activities on the national programme, but also information on national and European legislation, on the Green Deal, on UN programmes, on the Paris Agreement.