News & Stories

Sonja Graham, CEO
Dr Morgan Phillips, Director of Education and Youth Engagement

Estimated reading time 2 minutes

Today we published an open letter to the Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson MP. The letter - coordinated by Global Action Plan and the UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education - has been co-signed by us and over 150 leading scientists and academics including Nicholas Stern, Kate Raworth, Lee Elliot Major, Hillary Cottam, Danny Dorling, Kate Pickett, Mike Berners-Lee and Chris Rapley. 

The letter is available now to read in full, along with the full list of signatories. We are keeping the letter open to additional signatories for two months so you can add your name - which we hope you will.

Together we are calling on the Department for Education to offer the strongest possible response to the climate and environmental crisis. It is, we hope, a timely and powerful intervention. 

Sustainability and climate change education is a far from simple task, but done well it can equip young people with the skills, knowledge and motivation to take collective action towards a more climate resilient sustainable society. We know from talking to young people that this is what they want. Global Action Plan is pioneering new educational approaches through our Generation Action programmes, but we desperately need a more receptive education system to further scale our reach and impact.

Any time now, Professor Becky Francis will publish her interim report. This will provide us with a strong indication of what will eventually emerge from the independent review of curriculum and assessment that she is leading. The final recommendations the Francis review makes, due autumn 2025, will have an era defining effect on the education of over 10 million children and young people. 

We can be reasonably hopeful that provision of sustainability and climate change education has been reviewed by Francis and her team. Global Action Plan, amongst others, has ensured this through our campaigning and mobilising efforts to date. 

We are unsure, however, how deeply this vital area has been reviewed, or how much sustainability education expertise has been called upon. We are yet to see, for example, the establishment of an official expert subgroup. This is something we will continue to call for. 

Both Francis and Phillipson have a huge opportunity to create a step change in how the National Curriculum responds to the climate and nature crisis. Global Action Plan wants to see a curriculum that develops within young people the knowledge, skills, confidence, and desire to take collective action for the good of people and planet. We don’t think we’re alone in this, as this letter demonstrates; add your name to it now.

Read, share, and sign the letter now

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