Empowering young people to tackle climate change: our curriculum recommendations
The results of an extensive survey of educators and pupils across the UK show that current provision is falling short. Read our new report.
Young people are acutely aware of the sustainability challenges they face, and education is crucial to ensuring they are equipped to deal with these challenges and thrive in a green economy.
In order to determine the best route to achieving this goal, we asked young people and educators across the UK and Ireland what they think of the way climate change and sustainability are currently taught in science and chemistry lessons.
See our key findings and action plan
Or read the full report
Our report found that 67% of educators working with those aged 11–19 thought sustainability and climate change should be a high priority in the curriculum, a majority teaching each age bracket said there was too little content related to the subject.
Meanwhile, 91% of primary school educators said there was too little content in the science curriculum that directly relates to sustainability and climate change.
And pupils agree, with 49% of older teens asking for more detailed coverage of sustainability and climate change in lessons – while 66% of those aged 17 and 18 are looking for more detailed coverage in chemistry lessons.
Read the report to learn the biggest barriers to teaching the subject, as identified by educators, our recommendations to Government for the future curriculum, and the commitments that we are making.
Martyn Steiner, Environmental Science teacher at Halcyon School said: "I absolutely agree that teachers and students want to see more teaching on sustainability and climate change. The report shows teachers feel the curriculum and time pressures are both major barriers to achieving this, and this resonates with my own experience.
"I feel sure teachers would be delighted to teach these issues if they were better supported with time-saving resources that link the existing curriculum to sustainability issues or, more importantly, if exams and Ofsted explicitly looked for evidence of deeper understanding of environmental issues.
"This report shows that we have a fantastic opportunity to use the momentum gathered by hosting COP26 to transform the way we teach the science of climate change and sustainability."
Hear from youth voices
The clips in the video come from young people who responded to our survey.
Panel discussion
Join us online on 12 January at 4–5pm (UK time) for a discussion on the outcomes of our report, and the future of the chemistry curriculum. The discussion will be led by panellists from the fields of education and policymaking.