Key Takeaways from a Brand New World Bank Climate Education Report

On September 4, 2024, the World Bank released their groundbreaking report, two years in the making, on climate education: Choosing Our Future: Education for Climate Action. At 149 pages long it is a bumper read, but in the interests of cheat-reading, I picked out some of the headline findings that most interested me, and hopefully you too.

Climate Education = Green Skills = Good Jobs

In Brazil, an average of 25 percent of the skills demanded in the food and beverage industry are green, while 17 percent are required in creative industries. This highlights the growing need for green skills across various sectors, not just traditional "green" industries.

A global green transition would require green skilled workers for an estimated 100 million new jobs, India alone could create up to 35 million new green jobs by 2047.

What is more, they found that In South Asia, workers in green jobs earn about 31 percent more than other workers.

Remember that "green skills" are broad too. They include technical knowledge, STEM, sector-specific, non-technical, socio-emotional, and cross-sectoral skills. In Egypt, India, and Kenya, less than half of the online postings for "green jobs" needed a STEM skill.

These skills are not just for "new" jobs but also for augmentation of existing jobs. Green transitions will need some new skills for new jobs. But more importantly they will need additional skills for existing jobs. Nearly 76 percent of businesses in Indonesia report. Any job or any sector can become greener with the right set of skills. In Brazil, on average 25 percent of the skills demanded for jobs in the food and beverage service industries are green, as are 17 percent of the skills demanded for jobs in creative industries.

Nearly 80 percent of global business leaders believe that green skills will be the most important driver of the green transition.

Student Behavior Changed - And Parental Behavior Did Too

A meta-analysis of 169 studies across 43 countries found that environmental education significantly improved environmental knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and self-reported behavior. In India, for example, climate-related outreach to children not only increased their pro-climate behavior but also increased the pro-climate behavior of their parents by nearly 13 percent. Parents are much more receptive to climate-messaging when it's done with or through their children.

In the U.S., providing middle-school children with climate education led to higher levels of climate change concern among parents. Politically conservative parents showed the largest gains in climate change concern and daughters were the most effective in building this concern among parents.

In the UK, recycling rates increased by 8.6 percent when students shared lessons in waste education with their parents.

A one-year university course on global climate change reduced individual carbon emissions by 2.86 tons of CO2 per year for the average course graduate. Overall it is estimated that financing education in low- and lower-middle-income countries could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 51.48 gigatons (a gigaton is one billion tons) by 2050

Students Don't Know Enough

While approximately 88 percent of Bangladeshi secondary students want to do something about climate change, only 32 percent could correctly answer a basic question about greenhouse gasses. Ironically, climate change knowledge among young people was found to be lowest in lower-middle- and low-income countries - often in countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change - such as Pakistan (19 percent), Sierra Leone (26 percent) and Bangladesh (37 percent).

It's not just students. Teachers are tackling climate topics in the classroom but do not always have the training to do it accurately or effectively. Nearly 87 percent of teachers across six low-and middle-income countries reported including climate topics in their lessons. However, nearly 71 percent answered at least one basic climate related question incorrectly!

… But They Want to Know More

Around 68 percent of youth across eight low- and middle-income countries believe students should start learning about climate change before secondary school.

If given the opportunity to take additional classes in secondary school on climate education, 33 percent stated that they would want to learn about climate solutions and green skills, a higher share than those interested in learning about AI.

… And So Do Their Teachers

86 percent of US teachers believed climate change should be taught in classrooms, however more than half do not cover it in their classrooms and further, 65 percent believe it to be outside their subject area.

Evidence from the aftermath of the 2022 floods in Pakistan found that approximately 97 percent of parents support climate change education in schools. Among education policymakers too, across 33 low-and middle-income countries, 98 percent support the inclusion of climate education in schools.

Similarly, although over 58,000 teachers from 144 countries and territories agreed that teaching about climate change is important, less than 40 percent felt confident doing so, and only about a third believed they could effectively explain its local effects.

Around 44 percent of policymakers interviewed agree that climate change is a priority for the education sector and 81 percent believe education systems and processes need to be revised to address climate change and to prepare for the green transition.

Education Beats Misinformation

Studies show that people with less education are more likely to believe in and share misinformation and yet UNESCO's review of national curriculum frameworks across 100 countries has found that 47 percent of frameworks have no mention of climate change.

We need to do better. We need climate education on every school curriculum worldwide so that classrooms can play their part in mitigating climate change and creating a skilled work-force ready to meet the challenges a changing planet presents. In the meantime EARTHDAY.ORG has created a free School Guide to Teaching Climate Change, to help teachers get climate education into their classrooms and our own report, Climate Education vs. The Climate Crisis outlines more about why we think it matters so much.

The World Bank's report calls for urgent action to adapt education systems for greater resilience and to harness the power of education to propel climate action. It outlines specific policy recommendations, including investing in foundational skills and STEM education, mainstreaming climate curriculum, building teacher capacity, and fostering adaptable workers and systems.

The report emphasizes the need to embed education into climate policy and climate into education policy, highlighting that tackling climate change requires changes to individual beliefs, behaviors, and skills, and education can be a powerful force to achieve these changes.

There's much to do, but this report underscores the planet-saving power of climate education!

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