Education and climate change: learning to act for people and planet

This paper argues that climate change education needs to adapt to fulfil its potential. The education paradigm cannot rely solely on knowledge transfer but needs to focus on social and emotional, and action-oriented learning. The paper proposes a framework for a new global indicator on greening education. It was developed in response to a decision by the SDG 4 High-level Steering Committee in December 2022 to have a benchmark indicator developed on areas prioritized at the Transforming Education Summit, including on greening education.

Based on analysis of ‘green’ curriculum content across grades 3, 6, and 9, the 76 countries assessed scored an average of 50% on the maximum possible level of environment and sustainability content, but only averaged 21% of the maximum score on climate change content and just 12% on biodiversity content. Critically, less green content was found in social science than in science syllabi, and in grade 3 than in grade 6 or 9 subject syllabi.