A systematic review in 2019 highlighted growing attention to climate/environment issues in the research literature. The same paper also observed that across the majority of studies, a ‘learning deficit’ diagnosis predominated—that a lack of knowledge, particularly scientific knowledge, explained low levels of environmental awareness and that if environmental knowledge is strengthened, then sustainable practices will follow.

This logic has some basis and is a key assumption of many new education initiatives. However, knowledge alone is not the panacea—there are other considerations, notably how does what we know impact on what we do?

More recent research has revealed growing evidence of ‘climate anxiety.’ A global study in the Lancet reports 45% of students state their feelings on climate change negatively affected their daily lives, with 75% envisaging a frightening future. Critically, the students expressing most concern tended to be from lower-income countries. These findings have important implications.

For today’s generation of learners, a key question to ask is when and how do we introduce climate/environment topics in ways that promote agency instead of anxiety and feelings of helplessness?

Agency—a response to student anxiety?

The high levels of student anxiety related to worsening climate/environmental conditions in low- and middle-income countries is concerning.

Although the bulk of studies on teaching environmental issues come from Europe and North America, the studies we do have suggest approaches which promote youth and community-led action go some way to mitigating anxiety and helplessness.

Unfortunately, such approaches are not common in formal schooling. Indeed, one researcher asserts an education paradigm shift is required to address sustainability challenges, one in which education “cultivates a critical and relational worldview that values human rights and ecosystems (and our embeddedness in them), while feeling both compelled and capable of meaningful, especially collective, action.”

Aspects of the challenge?

So. What will it take to deliver education that promotes sustainability?

Firstly, some thoughts about the dominant framing of climate change education. Climate literacy often focuses on climate science and global CO2 emissions. Does this impede a more holistic ecosystems and human rights perspective which encompasses national and local environmental issues? From biodiversity to air and water quality?

Secondly, if action-orientated approaches are the way to go, then what are the prerequisites of delivery? Findings of a comprehensive study using the ‘Surveys of Enacted Curriculum’ method to assess education system coherence in East Africa illustrate how instructional alignment, resourcing and teaching expertise cannot be assumed.

The study revealed that the formal curriculum defined a continuum for learning from recall through to higher-order problem solving skills, but assessment and examinations focused on factual recall—this in turn shaped classroom practice, resulting in ‘teaching to the test.’

What change for what age group?

A further challenge is better understanding and leveraging of the different contributions that primary, secondary and tertiary education can offer. There is a tendency in education to ‘homogenize’ our response in terms such as ‘climate education’ to the detriment of overlooking the specific contributions and broader co-benefits delivered by different levels and types of education.

At primary level

If 70% of ten-year-olds cannot read for meaning by age ten then, as the latest World Bank report stresses, any sustainability education focus should not crowd out a much-needed focus on foundational skills.

Indeed, given the level of research around climate anxiety and child psychology, there are legitimate questions around when (and how) it’s appropriate to introduce such topics into the primary curriculum—earlier may not be better. Integrating sea level-rise calculations into primary math classes may introduce math concepts, but they also may heighten children’s anxiety and impede their agency.

At secondary level

Secondary education has been identified as critical in the promotion of sustainability education whether to promote behavior change, serve as the foundation for the ‘green skills transformation’, or to promote secondary girls’ education in support of their reproductive choice and reap the benefits of national demographic transition.

The latest World Bank Climate paper cites research showing “one year of education increases climate change awareness by 9%”—a calculation derived from an averaging out of PISA data collected from students aged 15 and up—that is to say, students who have managed to access secondary education.

Clearly the impact of education is cumulative and without securing the learning foundations at primary, there is no secondary education. However, it’s important to ask how much climate awareness, agency and ultimately, impact accrue at primary and secondary levels?

It’s a sobering fact that less than 60% of students globally complete lower-secondary education and in sub-Saharan Africa, the average is around 45%. How important then is expanding access to secondary education to our sustainability challenge?

What next?

Education can make an important contribution to sustainability but for it to truly deliver, major change is needed.

At a philosophical level, the magnitude of what faces humanity requires a more comprehensive eco-social framing of the sustainability challenge: one which encapsulates both climate change as a global phenomenon and environmental issues as a more immediate and localized manifestation. We must concurrently address greenhouse gas emissions, the unsustainable use of resources and degrading of natural systems on which we rely.

Bringing the sustainability focus of Sustainable Development Goal target 4.7—to ensure all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development by 2030—requires moving beyond knowledge to developing agency and empowering for action. Such a shift cannot be achieved by curriculum alone.

More attention is needed on pedagogical approaches and assessment that value, measure and incentivize agency as well as greater consideration of who are the ‘agents’ of change: teachers, students and parents.

The challenges are, however formidable. Foundational learning levels are abysmal and access to secondary education, limited. Transformative education is reliant on a well-prepared, supported and motivated teaching workforce which can’t be assumed to always be in place.

Further, it should be expected that an increased incidence of extreme weather events will further erode learning time. Between 2022 and 2024 alone, 404 million students across 81 countries experienced school closures with an average loss of 6% of the academic year.

But there are glimmers of hope.

Recent high-level publications from the FCDO, GPE, the World Bank and the Global Education Monitoring Report team point to growing awareness of the challenge and need for rigor in climate-education research—something also evident in the Building Evidence for Education Special Interest Group on climate, environment and education currently co-chaired by FCDO and GPE. As to immediate practical challenges, there’s growing attention being paid to anticipatory action and infrastructure.

And finally, the emphasis of the 2025 PISA science assessment on essential competencies for ‘agency in the Anthropocene’ suggests that in some minds, an action-orientated paradigm shift has already begun.

There is hope for the future, but it stems not just from knowing but also doing. Education that empowers is the key.