by Sarah Lester

18 March 2013  

Proposed government changes to National Curriculum for under 14s will remove climate change from the geography syllabus.


Raising awareness and understanding of climate change in civil society is vital in informing society’s response to climate change. The Department of Climate and Energy (DECC) has action on climate change and energy use as one of its top priorities over the coming decades. However, the Department for Education, headed by the Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove MP, is proposing to remove climate change from several sections of the National Curriculum for under 14s.

Climate Change, sustainable energy use, climatic science and energy reduction are currently taught under the National Curriculum through Science (Chemistry, Physics and Biology), Geography, and Citizenship.

  • Science – Chemistry, Physics and Biology: The environment, Earth  and universe (p211); Materials, their properties and the Earth in terms of the drawbacks of fossil fuel use (p216); environmental factors affecting the distribution of organisms in habitats (p217), and evidence gathering on global climate change (p219).
  • Geography: Exploring sustainable development and its impact on environmental interaction and climate change (p103), and climate change and consumption of energy (p106).
  • Citizenship: actions that impact on decisions affecting communities and the environment and sustainable practices (p32).

Importantly, under the current Science Curriculum, Sustainability is highlighted in connection with the future needs of society and conservation of energy: ‘This relates to the continuity of economic, social and environmental aspects of human society, as well as the non-human environment. It also incorporates sustainable development: meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs ... examining issues surrounding the availability of finite resources, waste reduction and recycling, energy conservation and renewable energy resources, and environmental pollution' (p212). There are also mentions  of sustainability and the environment in the current Religious Education (p265, p280) and Design and Technology (p51-52) Curriculum.

Under the proposed changes climate change will primarily be taught in Chemistry with reference to earth sciences: 'the composition of the Earth and the atmosphere, changes to the Earth’s atmosphere since its formation, the production of carbon dioxide by human activity and the impact on climate, the efficacy of recycling' (p141).  

Notably climate change has been removed from the other sciences and the Geography curriculum.  In addition the terms climate change, reduction of energy use, and sustainability are not mentioned at all in these syllabuses.

The removal of many references to energy use and reducing demand from the proposed curriculum is particularly worrying, as school-aged students could now receive almost no education on how their energy use impacts on the environment. In fact one of the government’s key policies, the Electricity Demand Reduction Project, aims to ‘assess whether there are sufficient support and incentives available for households, businesses and organisations to use energy more efficiently’. Financial incentives should play a role in motivating individual action, but education and public understanding of science need to form a core pillar in the Government’s strategy to address climate change and energy use. At what point did we decide to stop inspiring our 'pupils to become global citizens by exploring their own place in the world, their values and responsibilities to other people, to the environment and to the sustainability of the planet (p105 of current National Curriculum)?

The Government’s argument for removing climate change from these subjects is that that students should be taught the ‘building blocks’ of climate science before learning about human impacts on the climate and environment.  The idea that the multidimensional nature of climate change can be more effectively understood by ‘streamlining’ teaching into a single discipline, chemistry, where only the scientific aspects of atmospheric chemistry will be taught – seems disingenuous. To learn effectively about climate change, and to allow students to critically assess the evidence on climate change for themselves, they should learn about the physics and chemistry of the climate system as well as the interactions between society and the environment that should be a core element of the geography curriculum. 

I regularly run outreach workshops on energy and climate change with students aged 13 to 18 years old. My experience from seeing over 1,000 students in the last two years is that children of this age are very interested in climate change and are always keen to learn more about it. I regularly ask students what they learn about climate change in their lessons and they respond with an understanding of the basics of climate change science. The teachers of the students I work with are also extremely keen to understand more about the topic and frequently ask me what resources they can use to develop their teaching within class. On behalf of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, working in collaboration with the Imperial College Reach Out Lab and the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC), I run a climate and energy negogitation exercise called Energy Islands. This activity allows students to develop their understanding of the energy system and emissions. While further knowledge about climate mitigation can come from civil society and non-governmental organisations such as the ones listed above, the basic principles of climate change science and energy mitigation should be taught in an objective and evidence-based way in schools to enable our students to understand the impacts they have on the environment. 

The benefits of educating children about climate science and sustainable energy use are obvious: young people who understand their role in creating emissions and the damages they can cause will be motivated to make the behavioural changes that are necessary to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change. These proposed changes are hard to reconcile with achieving the UK’s commitment to making an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.  One must question why these proposals have been put forward by the ‘Greenest government ever’.  How will we become a ‘greener’, more sustainable society that is willing to take appropriate measures to stop climate change if younger generations are not informed about the impacts of climate change and their role in mitigating them?

The closing date for the consultation process is the 16th April 2013 with proposed changes to be implemented in September 2014: responses to the proposed changes can be made here.

Sarah Lester was the Research and Policy Impact Analyst at the Grantham Institute. Her research interests include international and UK climate mitigation policy, electricity market reform, and methods of communicating scientific and policy research on climate change to incentivise systemic innovation and change.