The impact of climate education

Today we launch our seventh Climate Action Project. This year, the project unites 3,5 million teachers and students across 150 countries. We launched the project in 2017 before people came out on the streets for strikes.

The project's goal is to make our youth more knowledgeable about climate change, but also to empower them to take positive actions and even come up with solutions. By sharing those findings, actions and solutions at our (free) platform, students learn from their peers living in other continents. They also can replicate some of those actions and solutions. Students have been doing amazing things: Canadese students created solar lights which have been brought to Kenyan slums by actor Thomas Anthony Jones, Portuguese students developed a plastics recycling machine, Canadese students made edible water bubbles, students in Malawi planted 60 million (!) trees and Indian students created a solar driven cart. Students of all ages have been able to explore. Some may have gained insights by making a drawing or creating prototypes in cardboard. Other students invited their parents to the classroom hoping for a substantial change of their lifestyle at home. There's on thing: we kept away from climate anxiety as we mentioned at BBC.

When it comes to climate change, there are people who claim it's an hoax. Many people don't know the difference between weather and climate. And others are really passionate and go on the streets. Climate education serves all of these people. Personally, I'm not a fan of activists who glue themselves to paintings as it will make people in the middle of the spectrum - between activists and non -believers - angry. It makes it harder for us, to bring climate education to the classroom.

Thanks to some climate activists, the climate emergency is on the agenda of governments and people are talking about the emergency in their homes. Our approach is a different one. By offering knowledge and skills like problem-solving, creativity, collaboration and empathy, our youth will be empowered. Thanks to intercultural exchanges they will even start to appreciate each other, although they may have very different habits. Thanks to climate education we even have been able to fight a another global threat called polarisation. But in the end what really is required is a change of behavior and with that the change of society's mindset.

By training teachers and equipping them with quality resources, these teachers have been able to shift from instructors (students consume information) to guides who empower students to become content creators and problem-solvers. But climate scientists sometimes claim that education takes too long and that we need solutions now. They speak the language of carbon. For that reason we developed the app EarthProject which is freely available on Android/iOS and which translated the impact of climate education to the avoided and reduced amounts of carbon. The app suggests small - culturally relevant - actions everyone can take and shows the amounts of related carbon.

After six weeks of hard work in which students explore the concept of climate change, its causes and effect, potential solutions and taking action... we celebrate by bringing world leaders, experts, royalty, teachers and students together during our Climate Action Day event. The event is live, online and free. Past speakers include Prince William, the President of Colombia, Jane Goodall, David Attenborough, astronaut TJ Creamer to name a few.

Want to be part of our moment? Sign up today and start building your network of like-minded educators. climateactionproject.org