Amongst recent educational policy discussions, little has been said about climate change and its impacts for young people.
Since 2019, I have led NZCER’s research exploring educational policy and practice for a climate-changing Aotearoa New Zealand. Our research adds to a wider national and global literature that paints a mixed picture. On one hand, education is recognised as having enormous potential in empowering learners and enabling society to make the necessary transitions to a climate-changed, low-emissions future. On the other hand, many countries lack systematic climate education policies.
Still, there is much that schools can do to support and empower learners and communities in relation to climate transitions. This article discusses the impacts of climate transitions for education, and shares examples of schools and communities stepping up to empower learners and communities through action-focussed climate learning.
Key concepts in climate transitions
I often use the term ‘climate transitions’ rather than ‘climate change’. ‘Change’ can sometimes feel like something that happens to us. Climate change can feel especially overwhelming and beyond our control. This can lead to avoidance, denial, or disempowerment. A ‘transition’ is a process of changing from one state to another. Thinking about climate change in terms of transitions can help us to find a sense of agency, and see the roles that we can play within our own spheres of influence. Three key concepts are central to climate transitions (Table 1).
Table 1 Three key ideas in climate transitions
Emissions reduction (or ‘Mitigation’)
Taking action to put less carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in order to slow down and reduce global warming and climate change.
Adaptation
Dealing with the impacts of climate change. This involves anticipating, planning, and preparing for the changes that will occur in our lifetimes and for future generations—given that some temperature rise can no longer be prevented or reversed.
Just transitions
Ensuring that the economic, social, and cultural transitions necessary to achieving both emissions reduction and adaptation are equitable and socially just.
Climate transitions aren’t always ‘on top’ in our everyday education conversations. However, these transitions have multiple touchpoints to education.
Education can contribute to emissions reduction
Scholars identify education as one of six key interventions that could lead to worldwide transformation to carbon-neutral societies by 2050 (Otto et al., 2020). Effective climate education could support learners of all ages, including adults, to understand why the transition to low-emissions is important. Further, education can provide learning opportunities grounded in localised, solutions-focussed transitional contexts. Some schools are exploring this by looking at their school’s own carbon emissions and other sustainability practices, and investigating changes they can make.
In 2023 Auckland Council piloted a project called Mana Ora: Students Decarbonising Schools. This involved eighteen student- and teacher-led projects in early childhood, primary, and secondary schools, focussing on areas such as transport, waste, food, energy, and planting. While the direct decarbonisation impacts of these projects were modest, an evaluation found that many students developed new understandings about climate change and/or decarbonisation (Bolstad, 2024). Students felt ‘empowered’ to see ways they could take action on climate change and sustainability issues through making a change in their own school. The projects had multiple benefits for student learning, wellbeing, and community engagement. Lead teachers said that Mana Ora had contributed to their confidence and knowledge to teach about and inspire climate action learning.
The Mana Ora project, it gave me a better understanding of what carbon was, and like, how you can deal with it. And there was heaps of different types of carbon –there is carbon from cows, transport carbon, we had to choose which one we wanted to decrease. (Year 6 student)
See examples of Mana Ora student projects here:
Exploring emissions reduction opportunities at the school level can be a good entry point to knowledge-building and action. While schools and communities can certainly make changes, these are most effective when they lead to scalable, wider system shifts. Last year the Ministry of Education produced the first emissions inventory for the whole sector based on centrally available data, estimating a total of over 1.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) in the year ending June 2023. The Ministry’s inventory identifies that the highest-emitting activities for the sector on an annual basis are purchased goods and services, transport, and construction. Other emissions sources include heating, electricity, water, and waste. School transport is one of several areas with potential for emissions reduction, with Ministry analysis suggesting that national reductions of 77,620 tCO2e could be achieved if half the ākonga living in urban centres got to school via active transport. Learners and communities can examine these sorts of data, and practices in their own contexts, to explore what changes they could make. Learners and communities may also feel empowered to contribute to local, regional, and national decisions that shape or constrain their travel options.
State Schools can request a copy of their carbon footprint report, produced by Ministry of Education as part of their complete emissions inventory for the sector.
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Schools and communities are experiencing climate-related impacts
Schools play a key role in supporting community recovery and resilience in disasters, including extreme weather events. Over 500 North Island schools and kura were affected in the storm and cyclone events of early 2023. While most schools were able to reopen within days or weeks, some were still unusable more than a year later. Ministry of Education assessments indicate that 1,102 schools and kura – around 44 per cent of all schools and kura –are at some risk of coastal, surface, and river flooding, ranging from relatively low impact (for example, flooding of carpark or fields) to more serious (for example, more than 50 per cent of buildings affected). Extreme weather can also impact school communities through damage to homes and infrastructure (roads, bridges).
School leaders and teachers often play the role of ‘quiet heroes’ in supporting communities through the immediate and long-term processes of recovery (Mutch, 2015, NZEI, 2024). For school communities that may have more complex support and recovery needs, this raises equity concerns, particularly if wider system support is inadequate in anticipating and meeting those needs.
International research warns of multiple ways in which exposure to climate stressors across the human life course presents a threat to children’s development and educational outcomes (Prentice, Vergunst, Minor, & Berry, 2024). Although New Zealand research in this space is in its infancy, a Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) survey found higher levels of reported anxiety and depression amongst young people who had experienced the effects of the early 2023 weather events, compared with those who had not experienced these events. Teachers and school leaders in affected areas have observed children’s and families’ anxieties rising when it rains heavily.
Young people want to be heard
An IPCC infographic (Figure 1) underscores the difference in global warming impacts likely to be experienced during the lifetimes of someone born in 1950 or 1980, compared with someone born in 2020, under different emissions scenarios. Many young people are aware of the disproportionate impacts they are likely to experience and have been vocal in urging their governments to take faster action on climate change.
Next Generation Conversation (NGC) is a coalition of young people aged 10–16 in Ōtautahi Christchurch who meet regularly after school, with support from facilitator Sian Carvell, to explore and take action on climate change. NGC formed in 2021 after learners had opportunities to engage in climate change education and action at their schools.
We have quite a lot of debates and then we can get to hear everyone’s opinion on the matter and what everybody thinks about it and we get to see a lot of different points of view (Member of NGC, Year 8)
Ryder (2023) has described NGC as an example of children’s citizenship in action. As a team, NGC explores climate issues from multiple perspectives. They discuss policy issues and seek opportunities to engage with decision makers on local, national, and international climate-related matters. Examples include Christchurch City Council’s coastal adaptation framework, New Zealand’s National Adaptation Plan (Ministry for the Environment, 2022), and giving input to the Ministry of Transport.
You are not just learning the facts, you’re learning what you can do to help. You’re not just learning about the big problem, you’re learning about smaller problems you can fix (Member of NGC, Year 8).
Some schools are innovating in climate education
Research suggests that climate and sustainability learning may be somewhat ‘left to chance’ at a national level. Many New Zealand primary schools and early childhood centres already engage in whole-school environmental practices such as waste reduction, gardening, and taking care of local environments. However, climate change is less often a focus (Bolstad, 2020a). In secondary schools, climate change is addressed most commonly in science and social science subjects, but can be woven into any learning area. Whole-school sustainability or climate education approaches tend to be less common, though student leadership is often supported in these areas (Bolstad, 2020b). Innovative practice is often driven by individual teachers, students, or school leaders. Facilitators, advisors, and networks of expertise are often important in helping teachers and learners connect with people, programmes, and opportunities that further their learning.
One innovative example is the Climate Action Campus (CAC), a satellite school of Ao Tawhiti Discovery Unlimited, in Ōtautahi Christchurch. The CAC sits in the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor, within the Red Zone on the decommissioned Avonside Girls’ High School site. The Campus was the brainchild of former mayor Vicki Buck, who was motivated to respond to young people’s concerns about climate change and demands for action.
The vision for CAC is to be a ‘hub’ where people and groups can connect, learn, share ideas, and collaborate on emerging opportunities to learn and take action on climate change. An ethos of innovation threads through the campus and its activities.
It’s a place people see as a bit of an innovation hub to try things in terms of climate resilience (Learning advisor)
Dozens of schools, early learning centres, and other groups use the campus for diverse activities. Learning often involves connecting with the environment through nature play, growing or harvesting food, or working with the chickens or bees. Some learners work on group or independent projects, such as producing food for the community, environmental restoration, mural painting, learning about solar power, and bike repair workshops.
Learn more about the Climate Action Campus:
A system-wide approach is needed
The examples I’ve shared in this article contribute to our research exploring what it might look like if climate education was ‘flourishing’ in Aotearoa New Zealand (Bolstad & Durie, 2024).
Our research adds to other studies that demonstrate the short-term impacts of opportunities for learners to engage in climate action projects as a means to build climate knowledge, understanding, and agency to make change. We are also seeing that schools can benefit from tackling climate action together, and being able to share, compare, and learn from one another’s successes and challenges. Kwauk and Winthrop (2021) argue that schools have the networks to effectively scale learning for community-driven climate action. Schools are also well-placed to ensure learning and action are ‘locally-relevant and tied to local environmental justice issues [and] to local community challenges with climate change’.
While some studies are beginning to examine the longitudinal impact of climate education (Cordero et al., 2020), more research is needed to track the wider-scale impacts of climate change education, including its significant potential to act as a catalyst for community engagement (Odell et al., 2021). Emerging research suggests a ‘sweet spot’ for implementation of specific climate actions is at the scale of 10,000–1,000,000 people (Bhowmik et al., 2020). Schools across a town or city, working on climate response together, could potentially help to catalyse community engagement at this scale.
It’s important to celebrate what schools and communities are able to do in responding to the need for positive, solutions-focussed climate learning. However, the literature indicates that for climate education to flourish across the system, policy supports need to include interdisciplinary curriculum guidance, teaching resources, teacher professional development, and clarity of long-term vision about the role of education in a climate-changing world. A recent OECD paper identifies several potential leverage points for education policy to accelerate transformative change (Nusche, Fuster Rabella, & Lauterbauch, 2024). These include:
- foregrounding more holistic, cross-curricular, and place-based approaches
- shifting the emphasis from ‘individual’ to ‘collective’ action; and
- making school systems climate-change resilient.
The UK is one of the first jurisdictions to have developed a sustainability and climate change strategy for education. Since December 2023, 45 countries have endorsed a climate and education common agenda declaration committing to actions to adapt, mitigate, and invest in tackling climate change through education. New Zealand is not one of them. However, there are still opportunities to foreground the necessity of climate education in the refresh of our national curriculum, and to ensure holistic good practice is supported in educational policy reforms.
References
Bhowmik, A., McCaffrey, A., Ruskey, A., Frischmann, C., & Gaffney, O. (2020). Powers of 10: Seeking ‘sweet spots’ for rapid climate and sustainability actions between individual and global scales. Environmental Research Letters, 15, 094011. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab9ed0
Bolstad, R. (2020a). Climate change and sustainability in primary and intermediate schools. Findings from the 2019 NZCER national survey of English-medium schools Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
Bolstad, R. (2020b). Climate change and sustainability in secondary schools. Findings from a 2020 survey of English-medium secondary and composite schools. Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
Bolstad, R. (2024). Mana ora: Students decarbonising schools. Evaluation report. New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
Bolstad, R, & Durie, K. (2024). Ki te ako āhuarangi tōnui ki Aotearoa | Towards flourishing climate education in Aotearoa New Zealand. Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
Cordero, E. C., Centeno, D., & Todd, A. M. (2020). The role of climate change education on individual lifetime carbon emissions. PLoS ONE, 15(2), e0206266.
Kwauk, C. & Winthrop, R. (2021). Unleashing the creativity of teachers and students to combat global climate change: An opportunity for global leadership. Brookings Institute
Odell, P., Rauland, V., & Murcia, K. (2021). Schools an untapped opportunity for a carbon neutral future. Sustainability, 13, 46. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13010 046
Mutch, C. (2015). Quiet heroes: Teachers and the Canterbury, New Zealand, earthquakes. Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies, 19(2), 77–86.
Nusche, D., Fuster Rabella, M., and Lauterbach, S. (2024), Rethinking education in the context of climate change: Leverage points for transformative change—OECD Education Working Papers, No. 307, OECD Publishing. .
NZEI Te Riu Roa. (2024). We are still here. How educators in Te Matau-a-Maui have supported their communities in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle. Wellington: Author. https://www.nzeiteriuroa.org.nz/assets/downloads/We-Are-Still-Here-full-report.pdf
Otto, I, Donges, J., Cremades, R., & Schnellnhuber, H. (2020) ‘Social tipping dynamics for stabilizing Earth’s climate by 2050’. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 117, 2354-2365 (2020).
Prentice, C. M., Vergunst, F., Minor, K., & Berry, H. L. (2024). Education outcomes in the era of global climate change. Nature Climate Change, 14(3), 214–224.
Ryder, A. (2024). ‘We’re here, the next generation’: Exploring possibilities for children’s citizenship in local climate policy in Ōtautahi Christchurch. Master’s thesis, Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington.