Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of levels of inclusion of climate change and environmental sustainability in the national curriculum beyond geography and science subjects.

Young people have consistently expressed a strong desire for more education on climate change, nature and sustainability. Teachers have also highlighted that limited visibility and emphasis on climate topics in the national curriculum has made it difficult to develop effective provision in this area.

Climate education was already present in the science and geography curricula. The Curriculum and Assessment Review recommended stronger climate education and sustainability content across the curriculum, with detailed engagement and earlier sequencing with climate education in subjects such as geography, science, design and technology and citizenship.

Work is now underway to embed content on climate change, nature and sustainability across the curriculum and sequence knowledge throughout the key stages.

Funding is already committed for the National Education Nature Park to provide curriculum-linked activities and resources for all key stages, and for supporting climate action plans via the Climate Ambassador Programme and Sustainability Support for Education. Climate action plans encourage settings from early years to further education to consider how they take a holistic approach to climate across four key pillars of adaptation, biodiversity, curriculum and decarbonisation.