Education and Climate Change

National education plans lack climate change content. Out of 50 countries, despite mainstreaming climate change in the curricula, only 39% have a national law, policy or strategy specifically focused on climate change education and 63% of teacher training plans include a focus on climate change
(GEM, 2023)

Climate disasters disrupt children’s education. Climate disasters disrupt the education of nearly 40 million children annually, and this number continues to increase each year. (UNICEF, 2023)

Levels of climate change awareness vary among students and teachers. Less than 40% of 58,000 teachers from 144 countries interviewed by UNESCO and Education International felt confident teaching the severity of climate change. 70% of 17,000 young people across 166 countries surveyed by UNESCO expressed concerns about the quality of climate change education: more than 9 in 10 students were informed about climate change in school but 27% could not explain it. (UNESCO, 2023)

Many teachers don’t feel confident enough to begin teaching their students about climate change. 95% of surveyed primary and secondary school teachers acknowledged the importance of teaching on climate change but less than 30% expressed a readiness to teach it. (UNESCO, 2024)

The younger generation will be most impacted by climate change. Children will be most impacted by climate change. They will face more extreme weather events than the generations before them: seven times as many heat waves, twice as many wildfires and three times as many droughts, crop failures and river floods. (Save the Children, 2021)

Citizens across the world have a limited knowledge of ocean-related environmental or protection issues. Ocean literacy is not commonly included in mainstream teaching practices. (Ferreira et al, 2021)

Increasing urbanisation contributes to global disconnectedness from the ocean. It is estimated that over two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities by 2030. Limited transport from regions further away from the coast further exacerbates this disconnection to the coast. (Kelly et al, 2022)

Universal education and health interventions can impact climate change. The resulting reductions in emissions globally could be as high as 68.9 gigatons of carbon dioxide between 2020 and 2050. (Project Drawdown, 2020)

Education encourages the acquisition of skills required to adapt to climate change. Mainstreaming the latest knowledge and science on climate change ensures that children gain the skills that are relevant for the future of work, including the growing green economy and for livelihoods that are less susceptible to the impacts of a changing climate and degrading environment. (UNICEF, 2021)

Providing environmental education to children has a ripple effect, with knowledge transferred to their families, inspiring action and reducing vulnerability. In the United States, intergenerational learning has proven to be an influential pathway for parental adoption of environmental concerns, ultimately changing harmful behaviour. (Lawson et al., 2019)

Ocean literacy provides valuable social and economic returns. Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement, could result in billions of dollars in extra revenue for fisheries globally, most concentrated in the developing world where many rely on fish as a source of protein. (Sumaila et al., 2019)

Providing ocean literacy in schools can have a direct and immediate impact. In the UK, a student-led education programme outlining the consequences of plastic waste in the oceans has led to more than 1,000 schools going plastic-free. (Surfers Against Sewage, 2019)

Ocean literacy is key to conservation and the protection of livelihoods. Across three countries, education on sustainable fishing practices and the establishment of protected areas for fishing and conservation has generated a positive impact. Fish populations have remained stable or increased in 97% of the more than 600,000 hectares protected, providing stable jobs, food, and income for generations to come. (Rare, 2018)

Q. How does educating girls help to combat climate change?

A. Educating girls has proven to be highly effective in increasing disaster resilience. For each additional year of schooling a girl receives, her country’s resilience to climate disasters can be expected to improve by 3.2 points on the ND-GAIN Index, which measures climate change vulnerability. (Project Drawdown, 2017)

Using UNESCO data, projections show that educating girls could result in a massive reduction in emissions of 51.48 gigatons by 2050. (Brookings Institution, 2017)

Q. Can education impact sustainability more broadly?

A. Yes! Increased education leads to higher levels of environmental concern and awareness. A study of nearly 30 countries found that 37% of people with secondary education were concerned about the environment, compared with 25% of those who did not start secondary education. (UNICEF, 2015)  (Franzen & Vogl, 2013)

Education also promotes sustainable farming practices. Farmers educated in field schools reduced their environmental impact by 39%, and decreased pesticide use by 17%, while increasing their yield and revenue. (Waddington et al., 2014).