The facts on the climate crisis are now so clear that it would be a waste of my time to write about them at any length. In fact, Professor Kimberly Nicholas summed climate science up in 12 words:
I would also argue that many of the ways that we need to fix climate change have been rehearsed ad nauseam, yet it is meaningful action that proves more difficult. So the real question is, what are the barriers that are stopping us from acting more decisively, and how can we break them down?
The answer is, of course, multilayered and different for every section of society. I am going to focus here on education. This is partly because of my personal experience – I was, for a long time, a secondary teacher, and I am now working with Let’s Go Zero, a project run by the charity Ashden, which supports climate action in hundreds of schools across England. And it is also partly because education has such potential to make change when it comes to the climate, given the way that schools act as a hub for so many communities.
Change is of course already taking place in schools, and despite the enormous pressures that they are under, there are some wonderful examples of action – from the installation of solar panels and heat pumps, and the embedding of sustainability in the curriculum of primary schools such as St Edmund Campion to the United Learning Trust’s switch to a renewable energy tariff for all of its 100+ schools. But change is not happening quickly enough for the generations that the schools exist to serve.
The obvious answer to the question of what is stopping more decisive action on climate change within education is money and capacity. The challenges of funding in education are well documented, and the 2024 NASUWT survey reports that four in five teachers say that teaching has adversely affected their mental health, the most important reason for this being workload.
In the current climate (no pun intended), an injection of cash or more teachers into the education system to tackle climate change is exceedingly unlikely, so I want instead to explore some more hopeful ways that we can drive forward climate change action in schools. There is no shortage of staff and students who care passionately about the environment. This is demonstrated both in the statistics – more than 7k schools have signed up to the Let’s Go Zero campaign (the national campaign uniting teachers, pupils, parents and their schools as they all work together to be zero carbon by 2030) – and through the numerous conversations that I have had in schools. However, we need to find better ways of channelling this care and passion to bring about meaningful action.
The first such way is by ensuring continuity. As I have discovered through my work with Let’s Go Zero, change within schools is so often driven by one person – a passionate teacher who leads an eco council, a committed headteacher who threads sustainability through the curriculum, a business manager who invests in renewable energy, or a site team who puts up solar panels. And while this change is often wonderful, it raises a problem – what happens when that person leaves? How can the momentum be sustained? Continuity can be enabled if climate action becomes a whole-school project that involves all of the people mentioned above. So instead of sporadic one-off assemblies, or brilliant but isolated projects by the eco club, there must be a wholehearted effort to embed sustainability into the school fabric – a continuous thread through all parts of the school, with sustainability the focus in the way the school estate, the curriculum and the leadership are managed. This idea is supported by the DfE expectation that all schools will have a Climate Action Plan and sustainability lead in place by 2025. And importantly, the four areas covered by this plan (Decarbonisation, Adaptation and Resilience, Biodiversity and Curriculum and Green Careers) by necessity require a whole-school approach, since they cut across the responsibilities of many different staff. That is why I would encourage all schools to get support from Let’s Go Zero’s Climate Action Advisors, because we give free, independent support to create and deliver climate action plans.
The second way of achieving meaningful action is to align caring for the environment with caring for yourself. This could be seen as counterintuitive, given that the narrative around climate change action is usually one of denial and self-flagellation – deny yourself the enjoyment of flying to other countries, deny yourself meat, deny yourself consumption of fast fashion. And while all of these things are important to act upon, it seems to me that they will not be sustainable unless action is framed in a different way, by seeking to make change joyfully. Unless you find a way to care for the environment that motivates, sustains and inspires you, you are doomed to fail.
I have drawn this idea from the brilliant work of biologist and writer Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. She has created a Venn diagram (based on the Japanese concept of Ikigai) to inspire action.
She argues that the action you take as an individual should be at the intersection of three circles, each of which represents a question: What work need doing? What are you good at? What brings you joy? If you are a student in a school, you might know that the work that needs doing is to lower your school’s carbon footprint. You might recognise that your skills do not lie in altering the gas boiler settings, and equally, you don’t have the influence to persuade all your teachers to car-share. Instead, you might draw on your interest in clothes and your skills in organisation and influencing peers and set up a uniform swap shop, recognising that a large part of a school’s carbon footprint lies in the production of school uniforms. Johnson believes that everyone should create their own Venn diagram and use the intersection of the circles to drive forward climate action. Self-care in this context means an acknowledgement of your own skills, needs and passions in the work that you do.
Finally, we need to give the care that young people feel about the environment a meaningful outlet when they leave school. It is not enough for schools to educate and take action on climate if there is no way for young people to then realise their passion for change through their work. It is well documented that green careers (in the broadest sense) are going to form a critical part of our economic future – in fact they are already playing a vital role in our current economy: The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has just released analysis that states that the ‘green sector’ is growing at triple the rate of the UK economy and providing high-wage jobs across the country while cutting emissions and increasing energy security. As is stated by Green Shoots, a report by Green Alliance:
Numerous surveys have shown that young people are enthusiastic about working in green jobs, viewing them as modern, high skilled and interesting. But they are being held back by poor knowledge and awareness of the green economy. There are few opportunities for young people to develop the skills for this work both within and outside the mainstream educational curriculum…those from marginalised communities face additional barriers to accessing training.
As climate education and action take hold in schools across England, this must be echoed by opportunities for meaningful careers in the environmental sector. We need to build on the work of organisations such as the Youth Environmental Service, whose vision is that ‘every young person should have the chance to spend a year doing paid environmental work, addressing the growing gap between what needs to be done and the capacity to make it happen’.
Competing priorities in schools make it difficult to focus on an issue that sometimes feels far removed from the day-to-day struggles of getting students through the door, safeguarding them from numerous challenges and supporting them to pass exams that may shape their life opportunities. However, if the purpose of education in its broadest sense is to enable young people to thrive in the world, then caring for that world must be fundamental. In Johnson’s words: ‘Averting climate catastrophe – this is the work of our lifetimes… Be tenacious on behalf of life on Earth.’
Oci Stott is a teacher and environmentalist, now working as a Climate Action Advisor for Ashden’s Let’s Go Zero Campaign. In this role, she advises schools and trusts across London on how to embed sustainability in all aspects of their work (including green skills and careers). Prior to this role, she was a secondary English teacher and sustainability lead for many years. She has extensive experience of working in schools and is passionate about supporting them to take action on climate change.
Image credit: Markus Spiske via Unsplash