2. Translating learners’ environmental awareness into action
Today’s education systems have tremendous potential to foster the cultural change and resilience required to tackle the climate crisis at scale. The OECD Declaration on Building Equitable Societies (2022) includes a commitment to support countries to foster environmental sustainability through education. Yet, policy efforts have typically focused on top-down, curriculum-oriented approaches over bottom-up efforts that empower all learners to take action. This chapter explores recent and promising or impactful policy efforts to foster environmental agency and engagement among all learners, and to empower educators and education institutions to nurture a culture of collective environmental action. Drawn from this analysis, the chapter presents emerging policy lessons to support policy makers to translate learners’ environmental awareness into action in 2024 and beyond.
Translating learners’ environmental awareness into action
In 2024, education systems have a key role to play in bringing about climate mitigation and adaptation at scale. Changing individuals’ daily choices could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70% (IPCC, 2023[1]). Meanwhile, constructive environmental activism, such as litigation, petitioning, lobbying, boycotting, striking and protesting, can pressure governments to enact wider structural transformation. However, in 2018, only one-third of OECD students were environmentally active (i.e. engaged in three or more of five environmental actions included in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 survey) (OECD, 2022[2]).
There is political will to foster environmental action via education but systems are prioritising efforts to create the external conditions for action over learners’ internal capacity and drive. In the Education Policy Outlook’s National Survey for Comparative Policy Analysis 2023: Empowering All Learners to go Green (EPO Survey 2023), 57% of participating education systems reported that encouraging learners to translate environmental awareness into action is a priority “to a great extent”. However, they more commonly prioritise efforts that support educators (54%) and institutions (49%) over those that aim to develop all learners’ agency and engagement (26%) (see Figure 2.1).
wNote: Figure prepared with responses from 35 education systems.
Source: OECD (2023[3]), Education Policy Outlook National Survey for Comparative Policy Analysis 2023: Empowering All Learners to go Green.
This chapter explores recent relevant policy efforts across participating education systems, predominantly since 2020, to foster environmental action.
For learners: Education systems are promoting environmental agency and engagement by dedicating time within formal learning programmes for active pedagogies on environmental matters or establishing physical spaces for authentic environmental learning outdoors. Some education systems are establishing formal structures and processes for students to participate and have a voice in environmental matters within the education system. This includes developing targeted initiatives to respond to learners’ diverse needs, experiences and capacities to engage in environmental action.
For educators and institutions: Policy efforts targeting educators and broader learning contexts seek to nurture a culture of collective action. This includes providing high-quality professional learning that brings together experts from different disciplines and establishing dedicated competence frameworks to empower teachers to reflect on their own related strengths and professional development needs. In addition, policy makers are encouraging, facilitating or incentivising participation in institutional networks for environmental education and developing quality assurance or monitoring and evaluation measures that support the greening of institutional operations or the promotion of collective environmental action.
Analysis of these and other related policy efforts points to some emerging lessons that can help governments translate learners’ environmental awareness into action in 2024 (see Infographic 2.1). For learners specifically, these call on policy makers to ensure that formal and pre-established structures promote environmental action as an ex-ante condition for success, while ensuring a shared understanding of the co-benefits of strengthening environmental agency and engagement. For educators and institutions, the lessons encourage policy makers to expand the scope of ongoing efforts to nurture a culture of collective environmental action at every education level and sector. It is also important to foster environmental action at scale by identifying new collaborative resource streams that can deliver value-for-money in a context of economic pressure and the foundations for broader societal transformation for the longer-term.
It is now irrefutable that human action has caused the current climate crisis. The challenge facing societies today is therefore not straightforwardly economic or political but, above all, cultural. Policies stimulating a change in lifestyles, consumption patterns and public support for environmental policy can help drive large-scale transformational action from the ground up. These efforts cannot be limited to inspiring individual action today. They must also build people’s resilience, ensuring they remain proactive and engaged even as climate change disrupts their daily lives.
As highlighted in other chapters in this report, education has tremendous potential to drive cultural change and foster individual resilience, at scale. Building the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values required to empower learners to contribute positively to society is the guiding task of education. Education can also nurture resilient learners by building their agency and co-agency to identify and capitalise on opportunities given to them by the system and create their own (OECD, 2021[4]). Meanwhile, the reach of today’s education systems across ages and social groups makes them crucial in ensuring that all learners—including the most vulnerable—are empowered to act in the face of environmental disruption.
There is political will to foster greater environmental action via education. The OECD Declaration on Building Equitable Societies Through Education includes a commitment to support countries to foster environmental sustainability through education (OECD, 2022[5]). In related discussions, Ministers emphasised the need to go beyond curricula reform to focus on strengthening students’ agency, empowering them to act on sustainability challenges and engage in environmentally friendly day-to-day actions (OECD, 2022[6]).
However, responses to the EPO Survey 2023 indicate that education systems are more focused on creating the external conditions for action over fostering learners’ internal capacity and drive to act. Over half (57%) of participating education systems reported translating learners’ environmental awareness into action to be a priority for policy attention in the next five years “to a great extent”. Similar shares reported the same for empowering teachers (54%) and supporting institutions (49%). Nevertheless, a much smaller share (26%) prioritise strengthening learner agency, co-agency, voice and engagement to this level (see Figure 2.2).
When asked to identify the education levels for which these four policy areas (environmental action, agency and voice, teachers, institutions) are a priority, all were reported as prioritised in primary to upper secondary education by around 70% or more of participating education systems. However, while an important share of education systems also identify the policy areas as priorities in early childhood education and care (ECEC), the share decreases considerably as learners’ age increases beyond schooling.
Recognising the urgent need and political will for climate mitigation and adaptation at scale, this chapter explores the ways in which education policymakers can help empower all learners to translate environmental awareness (i.e. understanding of environmental change and its effect on economic and social stability) into environmental action. Building on existing international work on curriculum analysis (see OECD (2020[7]) and UNESCO (2021[8])), the chapter looks beyond curricular design and content to focus on policy efforts that support curricular implementation and directly facilitate individual behaviours, constructive engagement and collective action in favour of a green and fair society.
Note: Figure prepared with responses from 35 education systems.
Source: OECD (2023[3]), Education Policy Outlook National Survey for Comparative Policy Analysis 2023: Empowering All Learners to go Green.
The chapter considers two key areas of associated policy efforts:
Combining policy mechanisms and targeted programmes to foster agency and engagement among all learners. This involves measures to create space and structures for all learners to practice their agency and voice, as well as targeted programmes that respond to their diverse experiences.
Empowering educators and institutions to nurture a culture of collective environmental action. This includes initiatives that support educators and institutions to implement action-oriented environmental learning and to model sustainable behaviours.
For each policy area, this chapter analyses relevant policy initiatives, principally across OECD education systems. This analysis informs policy lessons that can guide policy makers’ short- and medium- term efforts in 2024 and the following years to advance the agenda set out in the Declaration on Building Equitable Societies Through Education.
Shifting individual behaviours and choices will profoundly advance the drive to a more sustainable future. Efforts to change households’ daily choices could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70% (IPCC, 2023[1]). Meanwhile, lowering energy demand, material consumption, and emissions-intensive food consumption have been shown to positively influence other aspects of sustainable development and facilitate acceptance of large-scale greening measures (Thøgersen and Noblet, 2012[9]; OECD, 2019[10]; IPCC, 2023[1]).
Alongside behavioural change, constructive engagement in environmental activism, such as litigation, petitioning, lobbying, boycotting, striking and protesting, can pressure governments to enact wider structural transformation. Previous studies find positive relationships at country level between the development of a thriving environmental civil society and lower environmental degradation or reliance on carbon emissions (Schofer and Hironaka, 2005[11]; Grant, Jorgenson and Longhofer, 2018[12]). Activism has also been key in pressuring governments around the world to create environmental laws and regulations, as well as the bodies charged with implementing them (Longhofer et al., 2016[13]).
As part of the urgent transition towards greener and fairer societies, public policy must therefore stimulate behavioural change in the private sphere and support constructive engagement in the public sphere. Children and young people cannot be forgotten in these efforts. From an ethical view, the disproportionately negative impact of climate change on younger generations for both their present development and future well-being mean their voices must be heard. From a pragmatic stance, research indicates it is easier to shape attitudes and behaviour in childhood and that pro-environmental youth behaviours can positively influence older generations (Lawson et al., 2018[14]). Therefore, inspiring action among children and young people not only serves to renew ways of thinking, skills and values in favour of longer-term ecological reconstruction, it is also an essential part of the adaptation and mitigation efforts required today.
Education is uniquely placed to equip younger generations to act for greener and fairer societies. However, while promoting environmental action is a key goal of frameworks for education for sustainable development, policy makers have neglected action-oriented efforts in favour of knowledge development. A systematic review of related literature (1993-2014) identified that education systems tend to adopt top-down approaches focused on scientific knowledge and curriculum as opposed to bottom-up efforts emphasising learner participation and empowerment (Rousell and Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, 2019[15]).
Yet knowledge does not predict action. In the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018, a considerable share of strong science-performers did not report engaging in any of the pro-environmental behaviours included in the survey (e.g. reducing energy use in the home or choosing certain products for ethical or environmental reasons). Only one-third of OECD students were environmentally active (i.e. engaged in three or more of the five actions included in the survey) in 2018 (OECD, 2022[2]). As shown in Figure 2.3, even in countries where the level of climate risk to children is comparatively high, the share of environmentally active students rarely reaches 50%.
Part of the challenge for education is that promoting greater environmental action requires developing complex transversal competencies, attitudes and values within learners (See also Chapter 3). Indeed, as reported in OECD (OECD, 2023[16]), individuals’ attitudes and dispositions are more powerful drivers of engagement in environmentally sustainable behaviours than their knowledge and skills. In the literature, three internal factors are repeatedly found to influence environmental action: agency (i.e. belief in having influence over one’s own actions and circumstances); self-efficacy (i.e. belief in a personal capacity to achieve a goal); and constructive hope (i.e. the ability to simultaneously understand the gravity of the challenge while seeing the possibility of progress).
Notes: Only countries with available data are shown. 1. The Children’s Climate Risk Index ranks countries based on how vulnerable children are to environmental stresses and extreme weather events. 2. Environmentally active 15-year-olds are those who reported participating in three or more actions in favour of the environment as included in the PISA 2018 survey. For further information, see source material. 3. For the share of 15-year-olds who are environmentally active, data refer to Scotland only.
Source: UNICEF, (2021[17])The Climate Crisis is a Child Rights Crisis: Introducing the Children’s Climate Risk Index, New York, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) https://www.unicef.org/media/105376/file/UNICEF-climate-crisis-child-rights-crisis.pdf (accessed on 14 August 2023); OECD (2022[2]), Are Students Ready to Take on Environmental Challenges?, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/8abe655c-en.
Although fostering these internal factors is complex, the co-benefits of doing so makes the effort worthwhile. Fostering learners’ self-efficacy can positively impact cognitive learning outcomes: in most countries and economies in PISA 2018, students with a greater general sense of efficacy showed stronger reading performance, even after accounting for socioeconomic characteristics (OECD, 2019[18]). Meanwhile, strengthening learners’ sense of agency and engagement can improve the democratic health of societies strengthening representative democracy and enhancing trust in institutions (OECD, 2022[19]). Finally, as levels of eco-anxiety and eco-despair rise among younger generations, education policy that fosters agency, engagement and voice can promote learners’ resilience, helping them to plan and prepare for, absorb, withstand, recover from and adapt to adverse events and disruptions (see Chapter 1) (OECD, 2021[4]).
The transformative potential of empowering learners to engage in environmental action can only be realised if efforts respond effectively to the specific needs of learners with different characteristics. This includes age: the younger learners are, the more effort required to overcome the constraints imposed by widespread assumptions that youth are politically disinterested and civically disengaged (Earl, Maher and Elliott, 2017[20]; Osler and Starkey, 2003[21]). Policy must also take socio-economic status into account. In PISA 2018, internal factors shown to support action (i.e. agency and self-efficacy) are consistently less prevalent among disadvantaged students than advantaged students (OECD, 2020[22]; OECD, 2019[18]). Gender also carries complexities: while boys are shown to be less environmentally engaged than girls, young women may particularly suffer from societal assumptions which sees activist identity as typically older and less feminine (Gordon, 2008[23]; Taft, 2014[24]). Finally, a learner-centred approach would also consider the unique strategic value learners from indigenous and other traditional communities offer as sources of traditional knowledge to help mitigate and adapt to climate change (Correa, 2019[25]).
Selected recent policy efforts
This section explores ways in which education policy across OECD education systems and beyond is supporting all learners to translate environmental knowledge into action. This includes efforts to introduce formal mechanisms that help create the conditions for teaching and learning to strengthen agency and engagement among all learners. Recognising the specific challenges for certain groups of students, it also explores related targeted efforts that seek to support disadvantaged or vulnerable learners specifically. Lessons learned show the need to better understand and communicate the co-benefits of promoting environmental agency and engagement, as well as to integrate efforts into formal, pre-existing structures to promote environmental action.
Establishing time, space and structures for learners to practice agency and engagement
Many OECD education systems have embedded agency and action in recent curricular reforms (OECD, 2020[7]). To support educators and institutions to implement these curricular goals in their everyday work with learners, some systems have introduced further policy efforts. These include formal mechanisms that create time or space within the formal learning programme for learners to practice their agency and co-agency. It also includes initiatives that establish structures for learners to have a formal voice in environmental matters.
Dedicated time and space for active or authentic learning
Education can empower learners to engage in pro-environmental behaviours and collective action by giving them active learning experiences in authentic contexts. Research indicates that across all education levels active learning pedagogies (i.e. supporting learners to take responsibility for their own learning process, make decisions and self-regulate) have a large effect on environmental education outcomes compared to traditional learning approaches (Arik and Yilmaz, 2020[26]). Meanwhile authentic experiences which engage learners in real-world tasks, expose them to multiple perspectives and provide time for reflection share many characteristics with effective environmental education (Bowers and Creamer, 2020[27]) (see also Chapter 3).
Decisions regarding pedagogies and teaching activities are generally under teachers’ and schools’ responsibilities. However, some formal mechanisms are available to policy makers to promote certain approaches. While curricular reforms can offer a high-level promotion, emphasis on active and authentic learning may not always materialise in school-level implementation efforts. Some education systems are therefore dedicating specific time within the school year to promote active pedagogies in relation to environmental education; this ranges from regular timetabled learning in Greece to shorter duration and non-mandatory (but heavily incentivised) initiatives in Hungary and Romania.
In 2022, Greece introduced the National Curriculum for Environment and Education for Sustainable Development for Pre-primary, Primary and Lower Secondary Education. The key aim is to educate environmentally aware students, capable of making decisions and participating in actions on environmental issues and problems. The new curriculum highlights teaching strategies such as problem solving, case studies, research, simulations, experiments, field studies and project-based learning (Government of Greece, 2022[28]). A year prior to the curricular reform, Greece introduced 21st Century Skills Labs modules in all kindergartens, primary and lower secondary schools. These provide dedicated time within the curriculum through which students can engage with the types of pedagogies and content set out in the new curriculum and valued across curricular areas. One of four key themes is “I take care of the environment” in which programmes include ecology, climate change and global and local natural and cultural heritage. As part of the mandatory curriculum, students spend time each week working on student-centred activities relating to the chosen theme. Analysis of implementation of the Labs indicates that students feel positively towards the content and methodology and feel they improve their active participation in learning. For teachers, the Labs help students to become more active in their group and to devote personal time to the investigation, preparation and enactment of the actions they decide upon. Nevertheless, teachers also raised implementation challenges, principally having adequate time and material resources to prepare and conduct the Labs (Greek Institute of Education Policy, 2022[29]).
In Hungary, the annual Sustainability Thematic Week (2016) aims to help schools and teachers to enhance their work on sustainability by improving active learning through inquiry activities, project work, co-operation with other organisations and experts and community action. Although not mandatory, the initiative has wide reach: around half of the schools in Hungary participated in 2022. Since 2020, organisers have collected qualitative data from teachers and students on the implementation and impact of this week. In 2022, participating students reported stronger pro-environmental behaviour than non-participants and believed to a greater extent in their ability to protect the environment. Identified success factors include building partnerships with external actors either by bringing them into schools or having students visit them (Kristóf et al., 2022[30]).
Romania has introduced a similar initiative: the Green Week programme (2022). An accompanying digital platform provides comprehensive guidance and teaching resources to schools to support implementation (Romanian Ministry of Education, 2023[31]). The Green Week builds on the Different School: To know more, to be better initiative (2011) in which all pre-schools to upper secondary schools in Romania are required to undertake five consecutive days of extracurricular learning activities that aim to develop students’ socio-emotional skills or 21st century competences, including sustainability competence. The activities must be innovative, transdisciplinary, experiential and/or designed in a participatory manner with students and the wider school community (Vasile, Andries, 2022[32]). The Green Week and the Different School activities can only be combined in special circumstances meaning many schools will now have two weeks a year of action-oriented educational activities that bring together the school and wider community.
Alongside creating time to engage in active learning opportunities, education systems are establishing dedicated spaces for authentic environmental learning. The Czech Republic, England (United Kingdom), Luxembourg and the French Community of Belgium are promoting outdoor education. In the Czech Republic, recent research among lower secondary students indicates that the exploration of complex ecological topics through outdoor education is particularly impactful in developing students’ pro-environmental behaviours. This includes both off-site experiences (e.g. one-day trips or residential environmental education programmes) and on-site experiences (e.g. active attendance in school Eco-clubs) (Kroufek and Činčera, 2021[33]). In response, the government is expanding financial support for outdoor education. The Czech Republic announced an increased Subsidy for environmental education centres (2022) aimed at investing in facilities for climate change teaching programmes for school students and teachers. This will help strengthen and expand the Czech Republic’s network of Eco-centres. Although such subsidies have existed before, in 2022, the overall fund is larger and centres can apply for bigger amounts than previously (Ministry of Environment of Czechia, 2023[34]).
In England (United Kingdom), the National Education Nature Park project (2022), led by the Natural History Museum and partner organisations, with funding from the Department for Education, will work with the education sector to establish a network of outdoor spaces in education settings across England, managed by learners. Through digital mapping tools and teaching resources, children and young people, supported by their teachers and schools, will map, manage and enhance land across the education estate, with the aim of creating a single virtual nature park across the country. In this way, the project aims to both increase engagement with nature for learners across all education levels and improve the biodiversity of the education estate (Department for Education of England, 2022[35]). The project launched with 40 pathfinder schools in 2022 and has now started to roll out to all settings. The project is a key action within England’s Sustainability and climate change: a strategy for the education and children’s services systems (2022). Although implementation is nascent, analysis of the framing of the strategy has identified some initial strengths, such as cross-government collaboration and action-orientation, and potential challenges, including ensuring enough support for teachers and schools (Dunlop and Rushton, 2022[36]).
Similarly, Luxembourg’s Learning Gardens (2020) initiative aims to establish an active network of education settings with outdoor learning spaces. As of 2023, the project includes 40 “learning gardens” across Luxembourg in schools, early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings, children’s homes and non-formal education settings. Members of the network benefit from professional support, which includes both continuous training and didactic and educational material. Those wishing to take part also receive support and guidance. The programme is the result of a recommendation that emerged during a national constructive dialogue with young people in 2019 on the issue of climate change (Ministry of National Education, Children and Youth of Luxembourg, 2023[37]).
In the French Community of Belgium, through the Action Programme 2021-2024 (2021), which is part of the ongoing co-operation agreement between Wallonia-Brussels Federation, the Brussels Region and the Walloon Region relating to Education for the Environment, Nature and Sustainable Development, government actors have committed to strengthening outdoor education to reconnect students with nature and the environment. This will include efforts to legitimise the concept of outdoor education by disseminating related information and guidance in circulars for school leaders, supporting initial teacher training and professional development in outdoor pedagogies, enhancing the support offered to schools by environmental education associations and proposing new responsibilities for the Inspectorate to evaluate outdoor learning offered by schools (Wallonia-Brussels Federation, the Brussels Region and Wallonia, 2021[38]).
Formal structures and processes for learners to actively engage in environmental matters
By creating structures that encourage young people to actively engage in a constructive manner with environmental matters, education can support them to fulfil their role as agents of change in climate change adaptation. At the same time, student voice and engagement activities strengthen broader learner and system resilience (OECD, 2021[4]). While some systems have been strengthening student voice and engagement mechanisms in general, others have put this at the heart of environmental education efforts.
Some countries, such as Chile and Italy have introduced efforts which seek alignment between civic and environmental education. In Italy, education for sustainable development and environmental education form one of three pillars of the new Civic Education curriculum (2019), a cross-curricular teaching area from ECEC to upper secondary education. Planned implementation actions include the appointment of a civic education coordinator for each class and each school. By embedding environmental learning in civic education, the reform puts students’ active participation at its core. In 2020, survey responses from school leaders and students indicate that the vast majority—97% and 93% respectively—consider the new subject a priority and recognise its value (UNESCO, 2021[39]). However, initial implementation analysis indicates that the teaching method most commonly used in civic education remains frontal lessons and this approach is increasingly common with age (Reported in EPO Survey 2023).
In Chile, environmental education has been embedded in the curriculum through two new compulsory subject areas at upper secondary level, Citizenship Education and Sciences for Citizenship (2019). The former aims to equip learners with the knowledge, skills and attitudes for active participation in a society oriented towards the common good and sustainable development; the latter encourages students to use scientific knowledge, skills and attitudes to make informed decisions and propose solutions to problems affecting them and the world they live in (Chilean Ministry of Environment, 2020[40]). At the same time and supporting implementation, all education institutions from ECEC to upper secondary must prepare a Citizen Training Plan (2016) which details measures to foster citizenship values and knowledge among learners, including aspects related to sustainable development, awareness of the climate crisis and establishing and developing initiatives in the community (Ministry of Education of Chile, 2022[41]). The Ministry provides guidelines, exemplar material and, on request, support for the development of the plan).
Beyond curricular implementation, some countries, such as France, the Netherlands, Peru and Portugal are working to embed formal participation mechanisms on environmental matters within the education system. Since 2019/20, France’s Eco-delegates (2019) initiative has sought to ensure that each class in lower and upper secondary education elects a class eco-delegate. From 2020/21 this was expanded to include the last two years of primary school meaning that in any academic year, there are around 250 000 eco-delegates across France. Eco-delegates are expected to raise environmental awareness among all students, develop concrete projects which contribute to their learning and that of their peers, and support the wider ecological transition of the school. Research conducted in 2021 found that participating students of all ages strengthen key skills such as communication and collaboration. It also found that eco-delegates and their supervisors seek greater alignment and continuity in actions across education levels to build more ambitious projects with higher impact. Furthermore, both groups seek more training but in a flexible model that does not add to workload (Bois et al., 2021[42]). From this, the government identified three key priorities for future efforts: integrating the eco-delegate model into school evaluation, teacher training and student assessment processes; strengthening the network of eco-delegates and supporting them to self-assess their impact; and, enhancing partnerships with other organisations (Poirson, 2021[43]).
Initiatives to formalise student participation are also evident in higher education. For example, university Green Offices (2010) originated in the Netherlands and, as of 2022, exist in almost every major Dutch university as well as over 40 other countries (UNECE, 2022[44]). Part of the institutional architecture, these are generally student-led sustainability platforms for students and staff and are characterised by the high-level of responsibility they afford to students (Green Office Movement, n.d.[45]). The Offices run activities such as organising sustainability events, providing advice and support to students and staff wanting to undertake sustainable projects, undertaking initiatives to “green” university operations and designing new sustainability-focused courses. Key to their success is the fact that they empower students to lead on sustainability and are formally supported by management, typically through dedicated financial and human resources, office space and a clear mandate (Filho et al., 2019[46]). In the Netherlands, these Offices are also members of the Students for Tomorrow network organisation which consists of 43 student-led member organisations who want to make higher education more sustainable. The network carries out several high-profile ongoing projects in the Netherlands such as SustainaBul (2012), a sustainability ranking for higher education institutions (HEIs) and the Sustainable Studies website (2022) which provides an overview of all tertiary courses related to sustainability in the Netherland.
Peru is appointing a cohort of School Environmental Champions (3-18 year-olds) and Youth Environmental Champions (2018). These are children and young people enrolled in school or studying in a professional or technical post-school pathway, who show an interest in environmental action and can commit to strengthening the active participation of their school or the wider community in sustainable development. The Champions work with the municipality to help identify local solutions to environmental challenges and support environmental education initiatives across the community. Their specific role must be clearly outlined in each municipality’s annual work plan and schools or the municipality must commit to providing training and ongoing support for the Champions (Ministry of Environment of Peru, 2021[47]). Wider analysis of implementation of the National Environmental Education Plan (2017) at municipal level indicates that while there has been a good level of uptake (68% of municipalities) implementation efforts can lack coherence (Alarcon Castro, 2022[48]).
Finally, as part of Portugal’s Schools Participatory Budget (2017), which sees secondary school students formulate and vote on proposals for using an earmarked share of school improvement funding (OECD, 2021[4]), many schools propose and vote for pro-environmental initiatives such as greening outdoor spaces and introducing energy saving measures or environmentally friendly transportation. In addition, some municipalities have specifically encouraged environmental action through the Budget. For example, in 2023, all proposals in the municipality of Guimaraes must address the theme of outdoor spaces and combine initiatives that cover culture, education and sustainability (Município Guimarães, 2023[49]). In this way, the Budget is helping to support implementation of the municipality’s Environmental Education and Awareness Programme.
Developing targeted initiatives that respond to learners’ diverse needs and experiences
Data from PISA 2018 and international policy evidence highlight that disadvantaged students are less likely to participate in pro-environmental actions, and have a lower sense of self-efficacy and agency in global matters than their advantaged peers (OECD, 2020[22]; OECD, 2022[2]). At the same time, the diverse cultural experiences of students mean they come to environmental matters with different knowledge, skills and attitudes. Policies to promote learners’ environmental action therefore need to compensate for asymmetries and respond to the cultural differences between learners.
Some countries such as Italy, Germany, Costa Rica and Chile are developing or supporting programmes that provide opportunities for specific groups of students to develop environmental agency through engaging in active or authentic learning. Italy has recently committed to a nationwide expansion of the UPSHIFT programme (2022), an initiative of the United Nations Children's Fund through which young people, particularly those from disadvantaged, migrant or refugee backgrounds develop 21st century skills. In 2021, the Ministry of Education and Merit announced aims to promote the programme in lower secondary schools through its integration into the Civic Education curriculum area and in upper secondary schools through the Pathways for Soft Skills and Orientation curriculum area. Participating schools are selected according to various indicators of disadvantage (i.e. school dropout rate, share of students with a migrant background and student performance) (Ministry of Education and Merit, 2023[50]).
Initially implemented in 2018, the programme supports vulnerable and at-risk young people to become agents of change in their communities, by analysing local problems and identifying solutions in the form of products or services with a social impact. UPSHIFT is based on active teaching and learning methods as well as design-thinking approaches. Although not explicitly focused on environmental projects, many of the student-led initiatives have addressed environmental or climate challenges. For example, proposals have included the development of a robot to clean up micro- and macro-plastics from port areas and a digital application that encourages the use of renewable energy. Evaluations indicate that school students participating in UPSHIFT in Italy perceive an increase in several competencies such as collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving, as well as an improved sense of agency, self-confidence and emotional regulation (Lui and Crisp, 2019[51]).
In Hamburg (Germany), from 2019, the state government has financed environmental education programmes tailored to the needs of specific groups including refugee learners and those with migrant or low socio-economic background. The programmes target school-age learners, principally as part of extracurricular activities. The earmarked funds have grown out of experiences supporting the integration of refugees, in which, through the Hamburg Integration Fund, associations working in environmental education were encouraged to develop programmes specifically for refugees. Following the success of these experiences, in 2019, Hamburg increased funding and widened the target groups (Hamburg Department for Environment and Energy, 2019[52]).
Costa Rica’s Liberty Park (2007) is a 32-hectare space for human development and social inclusion in an area inhabited by socio-economically disadvantaged and at-risk populations. It seeks to improve the quality of life in surrounding communities through economic, social and environmental development. The activities and services it offers target children and young people, women and the elderly. The Park’s Center for Environmental Management and Education offers various education programmes to promote responsible and sustainable environmental management within the Park and in the surrounding communities. In 2021, 2 450 people participated in environmental programmes, mostly in direct capacity-building initiatives (Parque la Libertad, 2021[53]). In 2023, the Park opened a Center for Innovation and Creative Economy to promote innovation and creativity in children and youth and entrepreneurship across all ages. An earlier evaluation of the first 5 years of activities found that the Park works mostly with young people (71%) and of these, the majority are women (61%); many have not completed secondary education with an important share not completing primary education. The Park was perceived to have a strong positive influence on environmental protection practices such as planting plants and trees, separating waste and recycling and saving water and on the development of competencies such as teamwork, leadership, creative thinking, and self-efficacy (Ministry of National Planning and Economy of Costa Rica, 2016[54]).
A group of young female volunteers in Chile established the Climate Academy (2021), aiming to strengthen girls’ capacity to implement environmental solutions. The Academy is a free, virtual four-month training and mentoring programme for 12-25 year-olds across Latin America and the Caribbean. Under the direction of the Tremendas foundation and in partnership with numerous universities, civil society organisations and private companies, the Academy promotes environmental learning through dynamic pedagogies such as group reflection and conflict resolution, and project- and enquiry-based learning. Students are encouraged and supported to design collaborative adaptation and mitigation projects in their homes and communities. The Academy records students’ initiatives on a digital platform and identifies the carbon reduction impact of each one. In the first edition, 49 social impact projects and 500 individual actions were implemented in 16 Latin American countries by 600 participants, resulting in a reduction of over 8 tons of carbon emissions (Cognuck González and Sánchez, 2022[55]).
Other countries, including Mexico and New Zealand are working to better integrate young people from indigenous communities, and their knowledge and values, in environmental education efforts. The founding principles of New Zealand’s Enviroschools initiative (see below) draw heavily on Māori traditions and cultures, a feature that is seen as a leading strength. In addition, the Pūtātara programme (2020) a teaching and learning resource for students in lower secondary school is centred on three Māori concepts: Tūrangawaewae - Understanding where I stand; Kaitiakitanga - Caring for people and place; and, Whakapuāwai - Flourishing ever forward (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2020[56]). The resource has been praised for its emphasis on the link between inquiry and action and the focus on place-based solutions, which is in the Māori tradition. However, its impact may be limited until there is a clearer inclusion of climate-change education within the New Zealand curriculum (Eames et al., 2020[57]). New Zealand is currently updating the national curriculum, including efforts to strengthen learning related to climate change. This aims to equip learners to be part of and contribute to an equitable transition to a low-emissions society.
Mexico’s redesign and expansion of the Intercultural Universities programme (2023) includes the establishment of 2 indigenous universities and 1 dependency bringing the total to 17 a total of 13. Although not exclusively for indigenous learners, these institutions are in predominantly indigenous regions and seek to train people committed to local and regional development. Likewise, while the main aim of Intercultural Universities is to increase higher education enrolment and completion among disadvantaged and marginalised communities, there is a clear orientation towards teaching and research that promotes the value and protection of the natural environment and its responsible use (Perales Franco and McCowan, 2020[58]). In 2023, Mexico also developed and implemented two new career paths for these institutions: Agroecology and community management, and traditional food, cultural gastronomy and nutrition. Analyses of the programme prior to 2023 indicate that the universities have been successful in raising participation in higher education among indigenous communities and in facilitating intercultural exchange. However, there is scope to do more to establish the universities as engines of local and regional development (Schmelkes, 2013[59]).
Policy lessons for fostering environmental agency and engagement among all learners
Recent data and analysis from these and other policy experiences to strengthen all learners’ environmental agency and engagement offer emerging lessons to help guide education systems’ efforts in 2024.
Better understand and communicate the co-benefits of promoting environmental agency and engagement to help build support for these efforts, particularly when targeting students with specific needs and experiences
Today’s education systems and the people within them face competing and ever-changing pressures. Therefore, to have impact, any effort to promote learners’ environmental action will need to build strong political and sectoral support by convincing a wide range of stakeholders of their specific added value. Emphasising the co-benefits of these policy efforts for wider educational, social and environmental outcomes could be useful in this regard.
In PISA 2018, on average across OECD countries, a one unit increase in the index of self-efficacy was associated with a 7-point increase in reading scores, reaching up to 15 points in some countries (OECD, 2019[18]). The same increase in self-efficacy is associated with a 0.38 increase in the number of environmental actions students take, reaching over 0.5 in some countries (on a scale of 0-5) (OECD, 2020[22]).
To build greater political and sectoral support for implementation, in 2024, policymakers can generate better evidence regarding the various benefits of action-oriented policy efforts for students and their communities, as well as disseminating findings in ways tailored to different audiences.
The policies analysed for this section reveal important co-benefits beyond positive environmental impact and capacity to increase learner agency. In France, eco-delegates of all ages strengthen their 21st century competencies such as communication and collaboration. In Portugal, the introduction of the Schools Participatory Budget has increased students’ engagement in school life and their sense of belonging (OECD, 2023[60]). Co-benefits may be particularly strong for vulnerable or disadvantaged students. In Hamburg (Germany) the action-oriented environmental programmes have been seen to be particularly valuable in supporting the social integration of refugees. Meanwhile, in Italy, the UPSHIFT programme has had a valuable impact on participants’ socio-emotional skills including self-regulation and self-confidence.
Limiting global warming to 1.5°C and avoiding irreversible climate tipping points requires reducing net emissions of greenhouse gases by 43% by 2030 compared to 2019 levels, reaching NetZero by 2050 (IEA, 2022[61]). The scale of the challenge necessitates a whole-of-society effort. This must include educators and educational institutions, not only to drive behavioural and lifestyle changes among learners but also to stimulate collective action and model the transition to greener operations at scale.
As shown in Chapter 4, several cross-sectoral strategies point to the role of education in the transition towards greener and fairer societies, including “greening” how education itself is delivered. In the United States, schools are among the largest public sector energy consumers. They have the country’s biggest mass transit fleet, cover two million acres of land, and serve over seven billion meals annually (K12 Climate Action Commission, 2021[62]). In the United Kingdom, the tertiary education sector alone has been estimated to have a total carbon footprint of 18.1 MtCO2e, equivalent to around 5.5% of the country’s CO2 emissions in 2022 (Royal Anniversary Trust, 2023[63]; Department for Energy Security and Net Zero of the United Kingdom, 2023[64]).
As carbon foot-printing improves, so too do methods to assess the nuances of climate-related risks. It is increasingly clear that climate change is at once global in scale and inherently local in nature. Recent OECD analysis highlights the extent to which exposure to interconnected climate-related hazards varies depending on the location of people and assets. For example, among OECD members, the share of local population exposed to river flooding can differ by up to 70 percentage points between subnational regions within a single country (Maes et al., 2022[65]). Mitigation and adaptation efforts designed and realised at community level are therefore essential.
The scale of education’s potential contribution to the drive to NetZero, and the local nature of climate-related disruptions highlight the need to foster a culture of environmental action not only within individual learners—as explored in the first half of this chapter—but also within each education institution and the community partnerships that make up the broader learning context. These endeavours are mutually reinforcing. A contextual culture oriented towards collective environmental action is likely to accelerate individual behaviour change: research has identified a tendency among people to act only when peers are seen to be acting in the same direction (Dubois et al., 2019[66]). In addition, engaging in collective action, as part of intergenerational and transdisciplinary groups, can empower learners to effect enduring change in a variety of ways and on different scales (White et al., 2023[67]).
Moreover, there are several wider co-benefits to stimulating collective action. Involvement in community programmes strengthens learners’ educational and political engagement, fosters interpersonal skills, social and civic networks and enhances the relationships between learners, schools and their communities (OECD, 2023[60]). Channelling collective action through educators and education institutions ensures these experiences are conscious learning opportunities, capable of enhancing an individual’s capacity for critical thinking, empathy, collaboration and communication (White et al., 2023[67]). These co-benefits are important as when environmental action helps address wider societal challenges, there is potential for an accelerated and transformational impact on climate change mitigation and adaptation (OECD, 2019[10]).
Collective environmental action in education institutions and communities is also crucial in building system resilience. The OECD’s Framework for Resilience and Responsiveness in Education Policy defines resilient broader learning environments as those in which education settings convene a wide range of actors to advance their work. In this way, outward facing educators and institutions that build partnerships and seek learning opportunities beyond classrooms make systems capable of ensuring greater continuity during moments of disruption and innovation (OECD, 2021[4]). Collective environmental action at institutional and community level can also help dismantle the prevailing deficit model where youth view adults as extractive forces and adults view youth as victims lacking agency. Instead, by building a sense of collective efficacy together, young and old learners can envisage a more positive, and hopeful way forward (White et al., 2023[67]). In an age of growing distrust and mental health concerns among young people, this is particularly valuable.
Transforming today’s educators and broader learning contexts to embody a culture of environmental collective action that extends into the local community and beyond will require considerable policy efforts. In 2024, in a context of growing external and internal pressures on public funds, policy makers will need to make a convincing case for investing resources in efforts to reduce emissions and embed more sustainable operations across the vast public education estate. More is also required to convince HEIs and other private education actors of their role. As Figure 2.4Figure 2.4. illustrates, although a large total number of institutions in OECD Member and Accession countries have signed up to the United Nation’s Race to Zero alliance, institutions from certain countries dominate and the pace of registration is falling annually.
Note: 1. Values for the United States are: 2020, 332 institutions; 2021, 5 institutions; 2022, 2 institutions. 2. Values for the United Kingdom are: 2020, 41 institutions; 2021, 99 institutions; 2022, 16 institutions; 2023, 8 institutions. Countries are shown in descending order by total number of participating institutions. OECD Member and Accession countries with no participating institutions are not shown.
Source: UNFCCC (2023[68]), Race to Zero, https://climatechampions.unfccc.int/join-the-race/whos-in/ (accessed on 14 August 2023).
Moreover, educators will need further support to enhance their capacity to promote environmental learning through collective initiatives, to strengthen collaboration with environmental education actors beyond schools and to find the confidence and resources to take their teaching outside of the classroom. Here again, data suggests this will require a transformation in current practices. In a recent cross-country survey, in most of the participating OECD countries, around 50% of teachers reported valuing collaboration and being encouraged to collaborate. However, the share of those reporting actual engagement in active collaboration rarely reached 20% (Economist Impact, 2022[69]). In a context of growing disruption and change, the concept of connective professionalism, whereby the work of education professionals is more relational, interdependent, process-centred and networked is gaining traction but is not yet being put into action (McGrath, 2023[70]).
Selected recent policy efforts
While the analysis in the first half of this chapter explored ways in which policy can support learners to translate environmental knowledge into action by developing the internal factors required to act, the following policy analysis explores the approaches education systems are taking to establish external conditions conducive to environmental action. This includes efforts to empower teachers and other educators to promote environmental action through professional learning and collaboration, and measures to establish action-oriented cultures in education institutions and broader learning contexts. Lessons learned from the policies analysed refer to the policy makers’ need to broaden the scope of actors engaged to nurture collective environmental action, as well as to mobilise new cross-sectoral resource streams to reach a critical mass of learners.
Developing professional supports that help educators implement active environmental learning
Educators—both formal educators working in institutions and non-formal educators in community organisations—are key to ensuring all learners can access effective environmental education that encourages them to take action. Education systems are seeking to support educators by providing high-quality professional learning that brings together experts from different disciplines, and developing dedicated competence frameworks to empower teachers to reflect on their strengths and needs.
High-quality, interdisciplinary professional learning for educators
According to previous OECD evidence, four characteristics of effective professional learning for teachers are: 1) a content focus that helps teachers strengthen their classroom practice; 2) active learning and collaborative methods; 3) a school-embedded approach that grounds learning in the teacher’s everyday working context; and, 4) a sustained duration that allows time for implementation and reflection (OECD, 2020[71]). Policy analysis undertaken for this report reveals that alongside these aspects, high-quality professional development for environmental learning also draws on the expertise of actors from different disciplines and beyond education.
Professional development programmes which are of sustained duration, allow for active learning and reflection cycles and leverage specialist content from other professionals exist in some education systems, either with financial support from the government, as in Finland and the United States, or run by a government body as in the Flemish Community of Belgium. In Finland, the Transformer 2030 programme (2018-23) is a one-semester training programme for teachers, coordinated by Fingo, an umbrella body for civil society organisations. The programme includes a preliminary assignment, three in-person training days and the implementation of a school-based project. The training days combine theory with different sustainability practices and are delivered in collaboration with researchers and informal education organisations (OKKA Foundation, 2022[72]).
At higher education level, in the Flemish Community of Belgium, the Sustainable Education Hub—the centre of expertise on sustainability education for the Flemish government - runs a support programme for HEIs in which it accompanies teaching staff, management and students to embed sustainability and sustainability competences in curricula. Support can range from ad hoc advice to ongoing accompaniment during the development and implementation of a change process (Sustainable Education Hub, n.d.[73]). Completed programmes include a design process with Artevelde University College in which the Sustainable Education Hub facilitated a problem-framing workshop followed by a 4-day design sprint to co-develop measures to incorporate sustainability education in teaching and learning and develop a detailed implementation plan. Other projects have focused on supporting teacher education departments, wider faculty and students to explore and better understand sustainability challenges and competencies in order to embed them in their work.
In Maryland and Delaware (United States), annual Climate Change Academies (2012), support a cohort of teachers to develop inquiry-driven teaching content to use with students. The model has developed over time from a 5-day intensive residential course combined with in-person follow up to more frequent sessions (in-person and online), shorter in duration and more focused on modelling pedagogies and teaching activities. Moreover, in response to teachers’ demands to integrate student-action elements, the Academies have increasingly emphasised mitigation approaches, and local and regional adaptation challenges (Drewes, Rogers and Petrone, 2020[74]). The Academies are a legacy initiative of the Maryland and Delaware Climate Change Education, Assessment and Research program (MADE-CLEAR, 2012-18), which aimed to provide high-quality professional development in climate change education. Funded by a one-off award from the National Science Foundation, the programme developed in-person and online training, scientifically accurate resources, and online content. The activities were designed and implemented by a community of climate scientists, teacher educators and teachers, and led by two HEIs (Drewes, Rogers and Petrone, 2020[74]).
Alongside these intensive training programmes, education systems including Chile, Austria and Colorado (United States), are working to promote professional learning for environmental education through collaborative networks and learning communities. These may be targeted towards formal educators specifically, or bring together formal, non-formal and informal actors in the environmental education space.
In Chile, the Network of Environmental Educators of the Environmental Interschool programme (2022) aims to provide educators from various education contexts with a space to discuss, collaborate and co-create. The Network meets regularly online to work on key topics in small groups organised geographically. In the first year, topics included outdoor education, addressing COP27 and the Sustainable Development Goals through environmental education, and networking. In 2022, 379 educators joined the network; by 2023, it had 590 members. The Network hopes to continue expanding and strengthening the collaborative work by territory including by establishing joint face-to-face projects (Interescolar Ambiental, 2022[75]). The professional network is part of the wider Environmental Interschool initiative (2019), which offers a digital platform and mobile application with a range of free resources and activities. The initiative has received recognition for its innovative approaches including a national award for innovation in education (2020).
The Network for Greening Schools (ÖKOLOG, 2001) is Austria’s largest network for schools and the environment and is a leading example of common efforts across countries to stimulate a green institutional culture (see below). In Austria’s case, the network approach has been found to play a particularly important role in empowering teachers and school leadership teams to develop environmental education practices and in offering them a useful source of information and experience for peer learning. By 2018, analysis of the initiative found that participation in ÖKOLOG facilitated an increased consideration of sustainability issues, a change in pedagogies to more research- or project-based, collaborative and exploratory teaching and, within students, greater creativity, self-reflection and problem solving competences (Swatek and Rauch, 2020[76]). The national network is coordinated by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research and the Institute for Teaching and School Development at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt. Within each region, a team of representatives from the school board, teacher training college, teacher cohort and other relevant actors offers needs-oriented support across a regional network including information and resources or training opportunities to participating schools. In 2023, around 15% of all schools in the country are members as well as 13 teacher training colleges (ÖKOLOG, n.d.[77]).
In Colorado (United States), four Regional Environmental Education Leadership Councils (2012) work to build and support an active network of diverse actors to help implement the Environmental Literacy Plan (2012, updated 2022). As of 2022, Councils are expected to establish annual goals and tangible methods for evaluating those goals (Colorado Department of Education, 2021[78]). The Councils are made up of representatives from formal and non-formal education, agriculture, energy, forestry, tourism, and recreation and culture. In 2017, the regional councils created a five-year implementation plan to scale efforts to reach more districts and involve additional partners in outreach and support to teachers. Since then, to better meet these localised needs, Council members have been working to identify and develop local environmental learning champions among educators. By 2019, champions existed in 30 of Colorado’s 178 school districts. Amongst other activities, the Councils run professional development for teachers, networking opportunities between non-formal providers and teachers and knowledge sharing initiatives (North American Association for Environmental Education, 2019[79]).
Dedicated practical frameworks to guide teachers’ professional learning and teaching
Finally, a small number of recent efforts indicate that some education systems, including Austria, Hungary and the Flemish Community of Belgium are working to develop practical tools that help teachers embed environmental education in their professional development. Austria launched the Competency Compass for Environmental Education for Sustainable Development (2019) to enhance support for educators to improve their related skills and competencies and make them more visible. In this way, the Compass supports the implementation of the new primary and lower secondary curricula (2023) and the Basic decree for environmental education for sustainable development (2014), which include environmental education. The Compass, a digital tool, allows teachers to self-assess their acquired competences in environmental education, supporting them to reflect on their practices and identify professional development needs, as well as providing the basis for an evidence portfolio. It also supports teacher educators and trainers by providing a framework for course curricula (Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, 2022[80]). Based on the pilot implementation phase (2019-22), Austria has developed examples of essential pedagogies and practical activities that help promote environmental education in schools. A final version of the compass was published in 2022. However, implementation will require further nuancing by teacher profile and route into the profession to make up for existing asymmetries (Hobusch and Froehlich, 2021[81]).
Similarly, Hungary has defined Education for Sustainability Competences (2018) for teachers. The competences are operationalised via standards and indicators across all levels of education and for all stages of career progression. Hungary has integrated these into the wider competence portfolio for educators and into teacher evaluation processes. Teachers are therefore expected to regularly collect evidence of their integration of the competences in their daily work. Hungarian teachers generally reacted positively to the introduction of the competences and, since 2018, almost 35 000 teachers have been evaluated against the education for sustainability criteria. Analysis of this initiative identifies that locating specific competences for environmental education within a career progression process has been a means to raising motivation for developing related knowledge, skills and attitudes and embedding related processes and content in teaching for all subjects (Réti, Lippai and Nemes, 2022[82]). Pre-existing efforts to promote education for sustainable development in Hungary, through a clear policy framework and wide-reaching whole-school initiatives (see below) also ensured a conducive implementation environment for the policy (Tilbury and Mulà, 2023[83]).
In Belgium (Flemish Community) the Sustainable Education Hub has introduced a Rubric for Sustainability Competencies (2022) to support higher education educators to better develop these in their students. Designed principally for teacher educators, the initiative includes an interactive tool allowing educators to self-assess the extent to which each of the six sustainability competencies and their underlying criteria are included in their course curriculum. Each category has a description of what must be visible in the teaching-learning situation to justify the choice of that category (absent, limited presence, sufficient or maximum). Based on the teachers’ categorisation, they receive feedback on what they are doing and feedforward on how to make their work more effective (Janssen and Vleeschouwer, 2022[84]). The initiative responds to findings of a system analysis of sustainability in Flemish higher education. This project identified that one way to enhance the integration of sustainability in teaching and learning was to embed a clearer and more concrete understanding of the sustainable competencies that higher education needs to develop in students (Deleye, van Poeck and Block, 2017[85]).
Nurturing action-oriented institutional cultures through networks and quality-management processes
A whole-school approach is at the heart of many strategic frameworks to support environmental education at national and international level. It is about ensuring education institutions make a daily commitment to sustainable development through what students learn, how the school operates and connections between the school and community actors. By modelling responsible living, engaging learners in decision making and involving them in meaningful local and global projects, this promotes environmental action among learners (Tilbury and Galvin, 2022[86]). However, institutional change of this nature is not easy. To support education institutions to develop a culture oriented to environmental action, education systems are promoting institutional networks and adjusting quality-management processes.
Institutional networks to nurture a holistic approach to culture change
To support education institutions in these endeavours, the most common approach across systems is to encourage, facilitate or incentivise participation in international or national institutional networks for environmental education. Common features of such networks include criteria to become a member, with different membership levels depending on breadth and depth of engagement, technical support from central or regional network coordinators and efforts to share good practices across the network. The following analysis offers insights from both well-established and emerging network initiatives.
In Hungary, the Green Kindergarten Network (2006) is one of the few examples of a dedicated network for ECEC settings, which are more commonly included in the school networks. Coordinated by the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of National Resources, it covers almost 25% of kindergartens nationally. Recent efforts to expand and strengthen the network include extending the mentoring system between settings, increasing related accredited teacher training opportunities and enhancing supporting pedagogical resources. An evaluation of environmental education in Hungary in 2019 noted a steady rise in the number of participating settings in the Network. Identified strengths include the tiered system by which longer-serving members of the Network who demonstrate deeper and broader engagement with the criteria can become “retaining” or “permanent” green kindergartens. These settings are expected to contribute to knowledge-mobilisation efforts, peer mentoring and training across the network. The evaluation recommended emphasising the related pedagogical work of settings further and building a new system to incentivise participation (Hungarian Environmental Education Association, 2019[87]). Hungary’s recent efforts to embed education for sustainability competences in educators’ career pathways (see above) could indirectly support these endeavours.
The Enviroschools Programme (1993) in New Zealand, emphasises action-learning and cultural responsiveness, and is notable for drawing strongly on indigenous perspectives from Māori communities. In 2022, over one-third of schools in New Zealand were involved and the programme continues to grow (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2022[88]). It is run by the Toimata Foundation with financial support from the Ministry for the Environment and other government and civil society actors. In 2021, two new funding streams have brought new action-learning opportunities to the participating schools. The Earthwise Action Fund is available to support existing and emerging local initiatives that help to nurture the environment and people in sustainable ways. In addition, funding from the One Billion Trees initiative is allocated to regional networks to support recovery efforts from recent natural disasters (Enviroschools, n.d.[89]). The Enviroschools Programme has been evaluated several times. Identified strengths include the positive influence on school interactions with families and the wider community, as well as more sustainable practices in the school and related content in teaching and learning. For learners, participation in the Programme is seen to enhance citizenship, environmental and social skills, and engagement in learning (Eames and Mardon, 2020[90]).
The Eco-Schools programme is perhaps the largest international institutional network, covering 74 countries. The founding principle of the Eco-Schools programme is a student-led, bottom-up approach to increase student ownership for improving the environmental and social impact of their school. With over 90% of schools participating as of 2022, Wales (United Kingdom) has one of the highest participation rates in the world (Byrne et al., 2023[91]). Since 2011, the programme has been managed by Keep Wales Tidy, a charity that received central funding from the government. The Welsh government increased funding for the programme from 2020; however, given the recent cost-of-living crisis, growing scale of the environmental challenge and the disruptions to the management and expansion of the network during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government commissioned a further review in 2022 to explore future funding options for the programme. Among other strengths, the review emphasised the importance of the local, individualised support offered to schools and the strong collaborative relationships between the in school Coordinators and the Officers representing the network.
In other education systems, similar initiatives have a strong focus on greening school operations to enhance efficiencies, model sustainable living to students and contribute to strategic commitments to reduce emissions. In Korea, the Ministry launched the Carbon Neutral Schools initiative (2021) in collaboration with six related ministries, including the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, the Korea Forest Service, and the Korea Meteorological Administration. Schools (and ECEC settings from 2022) participate as “pilot institutions” (the majority), “priority institutions” (receiving extra resources and support, particularly with infrastructure adaptations) or, from among those who have previously participated, “leading institutions” tasked with supporting new participants and initiating knowledge sharing. Each of the Ministries involved supports the schools through programmes relevant to their sectoral expertise. For example, the Ministry of Environment runs climate and environmental education help desks, and the Korea Meteorological Administration offers climate change science professional development and experiential learning opportunities. The initiative is still young, but the number of participating schools is growing quickly (Korean Ministry of Education, 2022[92]).
Around 55% of schools in Victoria (Australia), participate in Resource Smart Schools (2008). This is a free programme offered by Sustainability Victoria (the State Department for Environment) which seeks to support schools to embed sustainability in “everything they do”, particularly operations. Some recent measures to strengthen the programme include launching an online portal through which schools can engage in training and access resources, such as an online sustainability framework and an Environmental Management System (Sustainability Victoria, 2022[93]). Since 2008, it is estimated that participation in the programme has led schools to save over AUD 41 million and more than 118 000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions (Sustainability Victoria, 2023[94]).
In the Flemish Community of Belgium, MOS Flanders (2002), a partnership between the Flemish government, the Flemish provinces and the Flemish Community Commission, runs the Eco-Schools programme and other related initiatives. As of 2023, MOS Flanders supports around half of Flemish schools to adopt a whole-school approach to sustainability education offering customised guidance, training and networking on greening school operations and promoting environmental learning. In place since 2002, recent work has a strong emphasis on greening school spaces both to provide more scope for outdoor learning and to foster greater environmental affection among students. This is partly a response to evaluation findings that while a strong positive impact on environmental knowledge in primary and secondary education was being observed in MOS schools as compared to non-MOS schools, only a small positive impact was being observed on environmental behaviour and affection and this was only among primary students. The evaluation made several recommendations to enhance the work of MOS including shifting the focus from building cognitive skills and knowledge to fostering affective values and behaviours, embedding more green spaces at schools, increasing outdoor learning and encouraging extensive student participation in order to build a greater sense of student ownership of environmental care at the school (Boeveÿde Pauw and Van Petegem, 2013[95]).
Quality-management processes to formalise efforts to shift institutional culture
Alongside institutional network approaches, some education systems, including France, Scotland (United Kingdom) and Austria are developing quality assurance and monitoring and evaluation measures to be used at institution level to incentivise or support the development of a culture of collective environmental action.
In 2013, France launched the E3D quality label to formally recognise education institutions adopting a whole-school approach to sustainable development. In 2020, this initiative was strengthened as part of wider efforts to advance education for sustainable development. New measures include awarding labels to networks or groups of institutions within the same territory, including those that cover multiple education levels or sectors or those that are specific to a certain type of school such as priority education institutions (i.e. those serving socio-economically disadvantaged communities). This group label comes with additional criteria for collaborative structures such as preparing a collaborative diagnostic report and establishing a regional oversight body (French Ministry of National Education and Youth, 2020[96]). By 2022, around 17% of pre-primary to upper secondary schools in both the general and technical or professional sector in France have an E3D label at one of three levels (commitment, deepening and expertise). The label is assigned by the regional education authority (Eduscol, 2023[97]).
Through a collaborative partnership among universities, government agencies, and civil society organisations, Scotland (United Kingdom) has developed a flexible six-step Framework for Monitoring and Evaluating Education for Sustainable Development in Higher Education (2023) (White et al., 2023[98]). The Framework aims to help institutions map their efforts, assess their quality and depth and evaluate impact. To accompany the framework, institutions can access a handbook and capacity-building workshops. The initiative responds to recognition that while several universities were monitoring their integration of sustainable development, they were largely assessing indicators of activity rather than more qualitative output-oriented measures such as the competencies developed or the impact. The framework is very recent but the participatory way in which it has been developed, with universities themselves leading the initiative can help create the conditions for effective buy-in.
In Austria, from 2019, sustainability is a central topic in the higher education performance agreements that public universities must establish with the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research. Already present in the agreements for 2016-18, the emphasis was strengthened in the more recent round of agreements to outline more specific objectives and actions including which of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) the universities commit to addressing and how. The UniNetz network (2019) was established to foster peer support among universities to deliver on these commitments. This supports the implementation of the All-Austrian University Development Plan 2019-24, which also prioritises efforts to advance the implementation of the SDGs throughout the higher education system (Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, n.d.[99]).
Policy lessons for empowering educators and broader learning contexts
Analysis of these and other policy experiences that aim to nurture a culture of collective environmental action offer emerging lessons. These can help guide education systems’ efforts to empower educators and broader learning contexts in the transition to greener and fairer societies in 2024 and beyond.
Expand the scope of policy efforts to nurture collective environmental action across all education levels and sectors, being responsive to their specific needs
The evermore immediate threat of climate crisis requires mobilising all learners and institutions across the entire education system. However, as seen in this chapter, the school sector consistently dominates both policy agendas and policy actions when it comes to promoting collective environmental action.
In the EPO Survey 2023, education systems were asked to identify for which education levels promoting environmental and sustainability education (or equivalent) is a priority. While nearly all (94%) reported it as a priority for primary to upper secondary education, it was identified as a priority for ECEC by only 78% of systems, for post-secondary by 64%, for tertiary by 61% and for adult education by just 50%.
To have transformative impact in 2024, education policy makers should seek to support institutions at all levels of the education system to promote collective environmental action. This will require exploring the experiences of educators at different levels and in different sectors to understand their specific needs, adapt ongoing initiatives to respond to them, and develop tailored policy efforts for currently underrepresented levels or sectors.
School-level initiatives dominate the policies identified for this chapter although there are valuable examples from higher education too. While some policy efforts cover multiple education levels, particularly ECEC and schools, a one-size-fits-all approach may not always suffice. Evaluations of policies in New Zealand and France emphasise that even within school education there are important differences in implementing a whole-school approach to environmental education in upper secondary schools, where the assessment demands and separation between disciplines are greater, as compared to primary schools (Education Gazette of New Zealand, 2022[100]; Gough, Lee and Tsang, 2020[101]; Badier et al., 2022[102]). Moreover, experiences from the Flemish Community of Belgium indicate that efforts can have very different impacts on primary and secondary level students in terms of environmental behaviours and attitudes (Boeveÿde Pauw and Van Petegem, 2013[95]).
Mobilise new cross-sectoral resource streams to reach a critical mass of learners and foster environmental action at scale
The policies analysed in this section are of a promising or impactful nature but very few reach a critical mass of institutions, educators, or students. Yet the education sector will only have a transformative impact on climate mitigation and adaptation by fostering environmental action among learners at scale.
In the EPO Survey 2023, participants were asked about the extent to which the Ministry of Education (or equivalent) collaborates with other actors on matters related to the transition to a green and fair society. While 72% reported collaborating “to a great extent” with the ministry of environment (or equivalent), collaboration with other key actors who could offer valuable resources or expertise appears less developed. For example, much smaller shares reported collaborating “to a great extent” with civil society actors (31%) and industry, business and employers (9%) (See Chapter 4).
In 2024, to alleviate stretched education budgets and increase the scale of policy efforts, education systems can identify opportunities for partnerships with other actors (including other ministries, but also civil society or the private sector) to deliver mutual benefit and capitalise on wider expertise.
Time and resources are necessary to help instill a culture of collective environmental action among educators and institutions. Evaluations of the policies analysed in this section commonly identify their sustained duration as a key strength allowing time for reflection, evaluation and improvement (e.g. in Maryland and Delaware (United States)). Moreover, strong relationships built up over time are considered particularly important in creating thriving institutional and professional networks (e.g. in Wales (United Kingdom) and in Austria). This inherent need for time means high-quality policy efforts to foster environmental action are expensive and require broad institutional support.
Cross-sectoral collaborations can alleviate already-stretched education budgets and help build a stronger support base for implementation. In Korea, a partnership approach between six Ministries comes with financial commitments (as well as specialist expertise) from across government. In Wales (United Kingdom), establishing funding streams from other government sectors by delivering mutually beneficial initiatives is identified as a way of strengthening the long-term future of the Eco-Schools programme. There are also efforts to seek financing from outside government: in Chile, the Ministry works in partnership with a B Corporation, Kyklos, specialised in promoting environmental culture and the circular economy, to deliver the Environmental Interschool programme.
In 2024, as governments confront the urgency of the climate crisis, policy lessons and policy examples of efforts identified in this chapter can inform efforts to ensure all learners translate environmental awareness into action (see Figure 2.5).
Note: “Impactful policies” are those with policy evaluations included in the analysis; “Promising policies” tend to be more recent policies that have design or implementation features aligned with empirical evidence of good practice.
Source: OECD (2023[3]) Education Policy Outlook National Survey for Comparative Policy Analysis 2023: Empowering All Learners to go Green.
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