Advancing Methane Mitigation Through Environmental Education: CCAP’s Role in Chile’s EducaOrgánicos Program
- Santiago Uribe Cuentas
- 3 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Key Takeaways:
Chile’s EducaOrgánicos Program shows that aligning environmental education with national climate goals is essential to scaling organic waste solutions and driving behavior change.
A well-structured program design can drive meaningful results. By establishing focused objectives, defining clear roles and applying SMART indicators, EducaOrgánicos evolved into a more effective and accountable mechanism for supporting policy implementation.
Inclusive stakeholder engagement (from ministries to communities) ensures that climate strategies are grounded in local realities and positioned for long-term success.
Education could be the missing puzzle piece when it comes to lowering methane emissions from the waste sector. While composting systems, anaerobic digesters and landfill diversion techniques are essential, their success depends on something less visible but equally critical: people.
Without a deep understanding of why organic waste matters or how to properly manage it, even the best technologies may come up short. In Chile, where the organic fraction stands as the largest contributor to methane emissions in the waste sector, education has become a catalyst to connecting national climate goals with local action.
The Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP), through the Latin America and Caribbean Community of Practice on Organic Waste Methane Reduction (CoP MetLAC) and Recycle Organics, recently provided technical assistance to the Government of Chile, supporting the review and improvement of its National Environmental Education Program on Organic Waste, known as EducaOrgánicos. This achievement underscores the powerful role that focused environmental education can play in driving meaningful climate action and accelerating progress toward methane reduction goals.
Chile’s National Organic Waste Strategy (ENRO), adopted in 2021, sets ambitious targets: to valorize 66% of municipal organic waste by 2040, up from just 1% today. To meet this goal, the government heavily relies on education, not only within the formal school system but holistically across public institutions, municipalities, communities and households. Chile employed EducaOrgánicos with this ambition in mind.
EducaOrgánicos, led by Chile’s Ministry of the Environment (MMA), aims to strengthen the public’s commitment to the prevention and recovery of organic waste through sustainable practices in both formal and non-formal education. It emerged from a three-month participatory process that included public consultations, interviews, surveys and document reviews to define goals and objectives, addressing barriers, needs and opportunities in environmental education geared around properly managing organic waste.
However, an external review revealed both shortcomings and significant opportunities for development and refinement within the program. Specifically, the review highlighted the need to:
Update lines of action for greater strategic impact
Clarify and harmonize objectives to ensure coherence and focus.
Define concrete, non-overlapping activities to enhance operational efficiency
Develop measurable and well-defined indicators to track progress and demonstrate results.
Strengthen alignment with existing climate and waste policies, actors and initiatives to foster synergies and avoid duplication.
This is where CCAP and Recycle Organics stepped in.
In response to these challenges, MMA sought technical assistance through the CoP MetLAC initiative, which supports capacity-building across the waste sector, including at the national government level. Between March and June 2025, CCAP worked closely with the Ministry to strengthen EducaOrgánicos.
The updated program—which is still forthcoming—is set to be fully aligned with key national initiatives, incorporating practical activities and clear indicators to track progress. Overall, the updates are designed to deliver lasting, systemic impacts.
The Process: From Review to Reinvention
At the heart of this technical assistance was a three-part methodological approach:
Consultations and Stakeholder Engagement: Through series of meetings, workshops and even written feedback, the team coordinated closely with the MMA’s Division of Environmental Education to define the scope, technical needs and milestones for the program. The dialogue was expanded to engage key national stakeholders, including from the Ministry of Health, Agriculture, Social Development and Science, ensuring alignment with related initiatives such as the 2040 Food Loss and Waste Strategy, FOSIS, Quiero Mi Barrio and the Explora Program.
Document Review and Policy Alignment: The team reviewed key policies, from ENRO and the upcoming Organic Waste Law (draft Bill) to the Green State Program and the National Strategy for Food Loss and Waste. This deep dive helped the team catch alignment gaps and unlock synergies, ensuring the program would not stand in isolation but serve as an integrated piece of Chile’s circular economy vision.
In-Depth Program Analysis: Using a structured Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis, the team assessed each of the program’s seven original lines of action. They looked at the clarity amongst objectives, the quality and feasibility of indicators and the presence of measurable outcomes.
The findings were eye-opening:
There were 33 goals and indicators listed in the document, which proved to be too many
Some lines overlapped, while others lacked clear operational steps
Concrete actions were needed to effectively guide program implementation
Roles and responsibilities were underdefined, creating risks for accountability
Key Results: What Changed?
Based on this intensive process, the updated EducaOrgánicos program introduced:
A new structure, simplifying lines of action into clear thematic axes, such as formal education, public training, community participation, cross-sector collaboration and national campaigns.
SMART goals and indicators for easier tracking and evaluation.
Defined roles and responsibilities across institutions and divisions, ensuring coordination within ministries and subnational governments
A prioritized timeline with short, medium and long-term steps linked to upcoming legislation.
Stronger connections with national initiatives, making sure the program complements (rather than duplicates) existing efforts.
Why the Process Matters
Improving an education program is not just about the curriculum or content—it’s about architecture, ownership and sustainability. EducaOrgánicos is now positioned not just as a stand-alone project but as a national lever for methane reduction, connecting policy ambition with community action on the ground.
Looking Ahead
EducaOrgánicos envisions a future where:
Over 1,000 teachers and public officials are trained by 2030 on organic waste prevention and valorization.
Hundreds of schools and neighborhoods launch composting and vermicomposting initiatives.
Citizens are engaged nationwide through media campaigns on food waste prevention and organic waste recycling.
Ministries, municipalities, academia, civil society and the private sector work together to ensure a coherent, lasting impact.
The EducaOrgánicos Program will remain on hold until the Organic Waste Bill by the National Government is approved. Once the Bill is enacted, the allocation of the necessary resources for its implementation will be enabled. The execution of the program will fall under the responsibility of the Ministry of the Environment of Chile.
CCAP’s role in optimizing this program shows how international cooperation can help governments turn ambitious climate goals and strategies like the ENRO into actionable, locally grounded successes. As the global race to cut methane emissions by 2030 accelerates, initiatives like EducaOrgánicos offer replicable models that bolster technical rigor, institutional collaboration and community engagement.
This effort reaffirmed a critical lesson: environmental education and awareness must be prioritized on the policy agenda if countries are to meet their methane reduction goals in the waste sector. Building deeper public understanding and engagement isn’t optional—it’s essential to success. CCAP remains committed to advancing this agenda in partnership with governments, funders and local stakeholders across the Global South.
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CCAP’s mission is to support every step of climate action, from ambition to implementation. A recognized world leader in climate policy and action, CCAP creates innovative, replicable climate solutions, strengthens capacities, and promotes best practices across the local, national, and international levels to accelerate the transition to a net-zero, climate resilient future. CCAP was founded in 1985 and is based in Washington, DC.