Secondary school students worry that climate change and sustainability education is too piecemeal and does not connect with their day-to-day lives or future careers, a UCL Institute of Education report warns.
The report’s authors call on schools to “help engage young people in more meaningful ways” by “weaving climate change…into the wider curriculum” and creating more opportunities outside the classroom to learn about sustainability.
The research, based on a survey of 1,607 people in England aged 14-19 across “a wide range of educational settings”, also finds that while students generally feel strongly about climate change, they want school to improve their understanding of what they can do about it.
Improving climate change education
The report identifies big gaps in schools’ teaching about climate change and sustainability.
The authors - Professor Nicola Walshe, formerly of UCL but now at the University of Surrey, and Dr Joy Perry - said that, as well as gaining a scientific understanding, students want to learn how climate change and sustainability connect to other issues.
Professor Walshe said: “The young people demonstrated sound knowledge of climate science, but far fewer - roughly half - understood how climate change connects to issues of fairness and equality between people.”
In response, the report calls for the teaching of climate change and sustainability to include areas such as politics, leadership, social justice and global inequalities.
At least three-quarters of the students surveyed wanted to learn more about how technology and innovation could help prevent climate change and how communities around the world are affected differently, as well as the politics, leadership and decision making around climate change.
Dr Alison Kitson, director of the UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education, said that the report “identifies gaps in the current provision of climate change and sustainability education that policymakers should recognise and respond to”.
The researchers said that climate change education mostly takes place in the classroom, particularly in science and geography lessons. A broader approach often depends on the interests and expertise of individual teachers and leaders.
Schools are advised to prioritise outdoor and “place-based” learning, by using school grounds and the local area to explore issues such as biodiversity, flooding, transport, housing, energy and food.
‘Anxious’ students
The report finds that most of the young people felt anxious about the effects of climate change - and it references international research suggesting that this anxiety could increase if they feel powerless to respond.
However, only just over a third of the students felt they could influence how their school responds to issues around climate change and sustainability. Only around two-thirds thought their teachers explained the relevance of climate change and sustainability education or how environmental problems could be tackled.
The data also suggests a gendered difference in responses to the climate crisis: girls were more likely than boys to report feeling sad about it (87 per cent versus 71 per cent), anxious (73 per cent vs 52 per cent), angry (66 per cent vs 49 per cent), afraid (59 per cent vs 39 per cent) and helpless (67 per cent vs 46 per cent).
The vast majority of the young people said they believe it is important to learn about climate change, but agreement with this statement was higher among girls (94 per cent) than boys (88 per cent).
The government acknowledged the need to improve climate education in schools in its immediate response to last November’s curriculum and assessment review.
However, the UCL researchers told Vlog that while the curriculum review seeks to “strengthen climate change and sustainability education across several subjects”, it “stops short of proposing a fully integrated, cross-curricular approach”.
Looking beyond Stem
The UCL report warns that as schools focus predominantly on science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) subjects when teaching about climate and sustainability, this could obscure the fact that expertise in these topics can be applied in other areas.
Schools are warned against only focusing on specifically “green” jobs because “climate change and sustainability are increasingly relevant across sectors and occupations”.
The researchers also found that students from more affluent backgrounds were more engaged and aware of climate change: among more socioeconomically advantaged young people, 95 per cent believed it important to learn about climate change, compared with 80 per cent of their less advantaged peers.
Dr Perry told Vlog that “while young people have a good understanding of climate science, there are gaps in their understanding of wider issues such as social justice and future careers”.
She added: “Hopefully this evidence will help inform future curriculum development and ensure that young people’s perspectives are appropriately reflected in policy decisions.”
The UCL online survey, carried out between February and May 2026, gathered young people’s views from a variety of educational backgrounds across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, although the report focuses on England.
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