The need for a comprehensive climate education in Europe is becoming increasingly urgent. It is essential that all students acquire the knowledge and skills that will help them promote climate justice and well-being, to thrive in a green economy and develop sustainable behavior.

The current state of climate education in Europe.

Some countries have already taken steps to integrate climate education into their education systems:

• In 2019 Italy announced that it would become the first country in the world to include climate as a mandatory subject in the national curriculum.
• Finland, France, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom they have also already included climate in their curricula.

Yet a significant proportion of secondary school teachers say they are not currently teaching about the environmental crisis in a meaningful and relevant way. At the same time, a large proportion of Europeans see climate change as a serious problem, and many students in the UK want to know more about the environment.

Why is climate education key?

1. Climate justice, equality and well-being:
   • A survey of young people aged 16 to 25 from 10 countries showed that more than half of them feel sadness, anxiety, anger and guilt about climate change.
   • Directly discussing climate change and using social and emotional learning to explore coping strategies can help young people increase positive emotions about the topic.
   • Comprehensive climate education expands understanding of climate justice and equity through an analysis of how climate change disproportionately affects women and marginalized communities.
2. Green economy:
   • Sustainable education is considered a key pillar European Green DealThe European Commission stresses that "education and training policies and investments aimed at an inclusive green and digital transition are key to Europe's future resilience and prosperity".
   • The growing demand for green skills requires immediate action by governments and schools to ensure that green jobs are filled in the future, helping the world achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
   • Children begin to make decisions about potential career paths at a young age, and it is therefore necessary to provide all young people with the knowledge and skills to benefit from this economic revolution.
   • Transitioning to a zero-emissions environment by 2050 will create new industries worth $10.3 trillion for the global economy, which will create a massive market for green goods and services.
   • According to the World Economic Forum, employers estimate that four in ten workers will need to be retrained for the green jobs of the future. Interestingly, almost half of young people surveyed said they did not have the right skills for a successful career in the green economy. A large proportion of young people surveyed also said they could not explain climate change, or only its general principles, or knew nothing about it.
3. Sustainable behavior:
   • Climate education can be a mechanism for developing instinctive sustainable behaviors that move us towards net zero carbon emissions.
   • It leads to meaningful behavioral changes. According to one study, if 161,000 high school students worldwide, in middle- and high-income countries, studied climate change, it would lead to a reduction of almost 19 gigatons of CO2 by 2050.
   • Students who had taken climate action in the past year were more than twice as likely to take further action.
   • Students who completed a one-year university course on climate change demonstrated significant and sustained reductions in individual carbon emissions, with an estimated decrease of approximately 2.86 tons of CO2 per year per student.

How to move climate education forward?

To advance climate education, it is important to take several key measures:

• Teacher education: Teachers should receive training in the form of manuals, workshops, and local conferences that show them how to integrate climate education into all subjects.
• Leadership support: Leaders in government, business, and education should identify and support mutually beneficial climate education outcomes, including green skills and green technologies, and provide funding for climate education implementation.
• Curriculum integration: Climate education should be embedded in each country's curriculum and included in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by 2025. NDCs describe efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Including climate education in NDCs ensures that education systems support climate goals and create a well-informed and solution-oriented population capable of leading and supporting climate action.

As the conclusion states, “in the end, we will only protect what we love; we will only love what…” (the end of the quote is missing, but the context suggests that it is important to understand and connect with nature in order to protect it). Climate education is key to this understanding and action. Spring