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COP26: City MP joins calls to make climate change part of the national curriculum

By 29 October 2021No Comments

Stephen Morgan MP has backed a campaign climate change to be made part of the national curriculum.

It comes as the UK is set to host the COP26, the world’s largest climate change summit, in Glasgow on Sunday.

Teach the Future, a youth-led campaign by students from all four UK nations, has been leading a UK-wide petition asking the government to implement climate education across the curriculum. More than 25,000 people have signed the petition and other key figures have supported the call.

Earlier this year, the largest study ever conducted into the effects of the climate crisis on the mental health of young people revealed nearly half (45%) of young people globally feel climate anxiety negatively affects their daily life. It also found that almost two-thirds (64%) of young people around the world believe governments are not doing enough to protect them from climate change.

In 2018, one survey found that 42% of pupils feel that have learnt a little, hardly anything or nothing about the environment at school and 68% would like to know more[ii]. Research by Teach the Future found that 70% of teachers feel they haven’t received adequate training to educate students about climate change.

The Member of Parliament for Portsmouth South, Stephen Morgan, commented:

“If we are to tackle the greatest challenge of this generation, it’s vital we invest in the next to ensure the long-term changes that need to be implemented now, are not undone later.

“That’s why I completely support the campaign to make climate change an explicit part of the national curriculum, to ensure students understand the importance of achieving net-zero.

“The solutions to tackling climate change will require more than one generation of this planet. We must invest in young people to equip them with the tools they need to do it.”