Only half of the national curricula in the world have a reference to climate change, UNESCO warns

New UNESCO data from 100 countries shows that only 53% of the world’s national education curricula make any reference to climate change and when the subject is mentioned, it is almost always given very low priority. 

Furthermore, fewer than 40% of teachers surveyed by UNESCO and Education International were confident in teaching about the severity of climate change and only about one-third felt able to explain the effects of climate change on their region or locality. When asked about the challenges of teaching climate change, 30% of the 58,000 teachers surveyed reported that they were not familiar with suitable pedagogies. Over a quarter of those surveyed felt some approaches to teaching climate education were not suited to online teaching. This is of particular concern given that 737 million students in 66 countries are still affected by full or partial school closures.

In view of these findings, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay made the comment that "the climate crisis is no longer the threat of a distant future, but a global reality. There is no solution without education. Every learner needs to understand climate change, and be empowered to be part of the solution, and every teacher given the knowledge to teach about it. States must mobilize for this." 

Subsequently, UNESCO orgnized the first joint meeting of environment and education ministers titled ‘Together for Tomorrow: Education and Climate Action’ at COP26 in Glasgow on 5 November, with the United Kingdom and Italy, co-Presidents of COP26. "Climate and sustainability education must be mainstreamed into the curriculum to go beyond the mere concept of sustainability and re-generate the school and the entire planet", said Patrizio Bianchi, Italian Minister of Education. 

UNESCO underscored the need for collaboration between the education and environment sectors to successfully integrate climate change in education systems worldwide in every level of schooling. 

The event was built on the Youth4Climate education session jointly organized by UNESCO and the Italian Education Ministry, where young climate activists discussed their calls for quality climate education with six education ministers.

• Find out more about the  ministers’ pledges here
• UNESCO’s work on education for sustainable development: https://en.unesco.org/themes/education-sustainable-development

The original article was published on the website of UNESCO.