Climate education is shaped by what students know, what schools teach, how prepared teachers feel and whether climate hazards interrupt learning. The available evidence shows strong student concern about the environment, but uneven climate coverage in curricula, limited teacher confidence and major disruption to schooling in climate-affected communities.
Contents
- What students know about climate change
- Climate change in policy and curricula
- Teacher readiness and professional learning
- Student environmental agency
- Climate hazards and access to education
- Environmental-science proficiency
What students know about climate change
The evidence points to a substantial knowledge gap, although the exact result depends on the population and question used. In a 2022 survey, 70% of young respondents said they could not explain climate change, could explain only its general principles, or knew nothing about it. UNESCO, “Youth demands for quality climate change education”
PISA 2025 asked participating 15-year-olds about the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Only 21% said they were familiar with the issue and could explain it well. Another 36% said they knew something about it and could explain the general issue, while 15% said they had never heard of it. These responses describe knowledge of a specific climate-related concept, rather than complete climate literacy. OECD, “Students and the environment: PISA 2025 Results (Volume I)”
The PISA comparison also shows a decline in the share reporting at least general knowledge of the increase of greenhouse gases: 63% in 2015 compared with 57% in 2025. The two figures come from the respective PISA cycles and should be read as reported knowledge, not as a direct test-score comparison. OECD, “Students and the environment: PISA 2025 Results (Volume I)”
Climate change in policy and curricula
Climate topics are not consistently embedded in education systems. A 2021 analysis of 100 national curriculum frameworks found that 47% did not mention climate disruption. In the same UNESCO reporting, only 23% of surveyed teachers said they felt able to properly address climate action in their classrooms. The teacher result is a self-reported survey response, not a nationally representative estimate. UNESCO, “UNESCO launches new initiatives for greening education in classrooms”
A newer study reviewed more than 530 Grade 9 science and social-science curricula from 85 countries. It found that 69% contained no reference to climate change and 66% contained no reference to sustainability. The same study’s teacher survey found a different pattern in eight countries: 69% of teachers said environment, sustainability and climate-change topics were included in their schools’ science and social-science curricula, while 50% said they included those topics in their own teaching. These results come from different parts of the 2024 study and should not be treated as a single global coverage rate. UNESCO, “Climate change and sustainability in science and social science secondary school curricula”
An earlier UNESCO review of policy and curriculum documents across 46 Member States found that 83% addressed the environment at least once. However, only 19% referred to biodiversity, while 81% did not reflect biodiversity. This broader environmental review used a different country and document universe from the 2024 Grade 9 curriculum study.
| Curriculum or policy measure | Result | Period and scope |
|---|---|---|
| National curriculum frameworks without climate disruption | 47% | 2021; 100 frameworks |
| Grade 9 curricula without climate-change references | 69% | 2024; 530+ curricula, 85 countries |
| Grade 9 curricula without sustainability references | 66% | 2024; 530+ curricula, 85 countries |
| Policies and curricula addressing the environment at least once | 83% | 2020; 46 UNESCO Member States |
| Reviewed policies and curricula referring to biodiversity | 19% | 2020; 46 UNESCO Member States |
Sources: UNESCO curriculum-framework analysis, UNESCO Grade 9 curriculum study, and UNESCO, “Learn for our planet”.
Teacher readiness and professional learning
Teachers’ self-reported readiness was mixed in the 2021 global online survey by UNESCO and Education International. Forty-two percent felt very ready to teach climate change, 32% felt moderately ready and 26% were not ready. Only 37% said they could explain the severity of climate change well to students, and 32% said they could explain the effect of climate change on their own region or locality well.
The importance teachers assigned to the subject was higher than their reported confidence. Seventy percent considered teaching the severity and effects of climate change very important. A further 23% considered it important but not very important, and 7% said it was not important. The survey also found that 62% reported access to continuing professional development on climate change and environmental issues.
Among teachers reporting climate-change teaching challenges, the most common barriers included unfamiliarity with suitable pedagogies, reported by 31.4%; preferred approaches not being feasible in online teaching, reported by 27.3%; and difficulty choosing subjects for the topic, reported by 22.4%. Lack of time and lack of knowledge and skills were each reported by 20.3% of these teachers. These challenge percentages refer to teachers who reported challenges, not necessarily to all teachers in the survey. Education International, “Teachers have their say”
Student environmental agency
PISA 2025 shows that environmental concern is widespread among participating 15-year-olds. Seventy-five percent of students across OECD countries said looking after the global environment was important to them. In 42 participating countries and economies, more than 80% said it was important; in B-S-J-Z China, Indonesia, Korea and Cambodia, more than 90% gave that response.
Many students also expressed confidence in the value of action. Eighty-one percent believed individuals can make a positive impact on the environment, and 82% believed collective action can address environmental problems. Yet only 68% reported knowing how to work with others to achieve positive environmental outcomes. That share ranged from 48% to 90% across participating countries and economies, showing substantial variation in practical collaboration confidence.
Reported participation was lower than concern or belief in collective action. Twenty-eight percent said they had never participated in any of the five environment-related activities examined by PISA during the 12 months before the 2025 test. Among students in that group, 56% said they did not know anyone engaged in environmental actions, 49% believed someone else would take care of the problem, 47% felt their own actions would not make a difference and 40% said they did not know how to participate.
Future careers were another area of interest: 62% expressed interest in contributing to environmental protection through their future careers. The result differed by gender, with 68% of girls and 54% of boys reporting that interest. These PISA figures describe participating 15-year-olds and participating education systems, not all students worldwide. OECD, “Students and the environment: PISA 2025 Results (Volume I)”
Climate hazards and access to education
Climate education depends on students being able to attend school and learn. UNICEF estimated that at least 242 million students from pre-primary through upper secondary education experienced climate-related school disruptions in 2024. That represented at least one in seven students. Schools in 85 countries or territories were affected, and at least 20 countries experienced nationwide school disruptions caused by climate-induced disasters.
The burden was concentrated in lower-income settings: 74% of the 242 million affected students lived in low- or lower-middle-income countries. South Asia accounted for 128 million affected students, while East Asia and the Pacific accounted for 50 million.
Heat was the largest reported disruption category in the 2024 snapshot. Heatwaves disrupted schooling for an estimated 171 million students worldwide. During April 2024, heatwaves affected at least 118 million children in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, the Philippines and Thailand. Climate-related disruptions also put an additional 20 million children in Africa at risk of dropping out in 2024.
These are conservative estimates of schooling interruptions, not counts of permanent dropouts. The figures measure climate-related disruption during 2024 and do not establish that every affected student permanently left education. UNICEF, “Learning interrupted: Global snapshot of climate-related school disruptions in 2024”
Environmental-science proficiency
PISA 2025 assessed environmental science as a construct that includes climate-related risks but is broader than climate change alone. Across OECD countries, about three out of four students reached at least baseline Level 2 proficiency, meaning 26% did not reach that baseline. The OECD-country average score on the environmental-science scale was 480 points.
Results varied widely across participating countries and economies. More than 85% of students reached baseline proficiency in seven participating countries and economies. At the other end of the distribution, more than half of students failed to reach baseline proficiency in 21 participating countries and economies. The share of low performers was below 20% in 13 participating countries and economies.
Taken together, the education statistics describe several connected gaps: many students report limited knowledge of core climate concepts; climate change and sustainability are absent from large shares of reviewed curricula; teacher confidence is uneven; and environmental concern does not always translate into participation. At the same time, climate hazards are interrupting education at a scale that affects hundreds of millions of learners. The PISA environmental-science results should be interpreted within their participating-country scope and as evidence about a broader assessed construct, not as a standalone measure of climate-change knowledge. OECD, “Students and the environment: PISA 2025 Results (Volume I)”