Climate education is patchy and teachers need help
In retired teacher Geoffrey Holt’s experience, telling students to throw away their trash doesn’t change behavior much when done in the classroom.
He told AAP it was much more effective to take young people out for rubbish cleaning and supervise their haulage.
“Kids would come up to me and say, ‘I used to go to the beach and leave my trash in the bushes, but I never do that anymore,'” Mr. Holt says.
He believes the same is true for all values learning, and this has partly inspired his project-based sustainability learning work with Western Australian schools.
Building on a sustainable education program led by the United Nations, Mr. Holt will enlist local environmental groups and Traditional Custodians for outdoor, hands-on activities (beach clean-ups, erosion management, cultural learning days) and take small groups of children into the field.
“This is where real learning begins,” he says.
It’s a model that safely introduces students to emotionally challenging issues like biodiversity loss and climate change and empowers them to take action on a manageable, local scale.
However, it is not issued in WA.
The former teacher and member of Climate Teachers Australia says climate education is incomplete, uneven and covered with euphemisms that dilute complex concepts.
Sustainability is integrated into Australia’s national curriculum as a mandatory priority, but exactly how challenging topics such as climate change are incorporated into lessons varies in each state and classroom.
This job tends to fall into the hands of time-strapped teachers delving into complex, emotionally charged material with minimal guidance or support.
Unsurprisingly, many stay away or remain at very high levels.
Mr. Holt worries that in the absence of comprehensive education delivered in developmentally safe and empowering methods, young people may learn about potentially harmful global warming online, through the media and by word of mouth.
Rates of climate distress among young people are rising and rising.
International polling published in The Lancet shows nearly 60 per cent of young Australians report being concerned about climate change; The 2022 Mission Australia survey shows more than a quarter of young Australians feel extremely or very anxious.
Research also shows that there are multiple pathways to ecodistress; this includes direct (exposure to flood or fire) and indirect (from news and other information sources) exposure, and suggests that a perceived failure by leaders to act commensurate with the scale of the problem is a common trigger.
Cybele Dey, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and researcher at UNSW, says the classroom can be a safe and supportive place to learn about climate change, provided teachers have the knowledge.
Educators are forced to address climate change in an ad hoc manner and often feel ill-equipped to address the emotional and psychological aspects, he tells AAP.
While some organizations and government agencies are beginning to do more to support teachers, educators still need more guidance to teach climate change effectively.
Research into the best ways to manage eco-distress in classrooms is ongoing, but Dr Dey says it is already well supported by evidence that teaching in nature and giving students space to express their emotions is beneficial.
He’s also sure that children may feel worse if their fears and concerns are answered with “we don’t talk about that here.”
The Institute of Public Affairs is pushing for a reduction in climate education in schools, arguing that children are being exposed to worrying material for which they are not yet ready, positioning them to solve problems beyond their control.
A May 2026 report from the conservative think tank says climate anxiety is endorsed and promoted by mental health professionals rather than being addressed with established treatments for diagnosed anxiety disorders, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
His stance was challenged in an open letter signed by a number of non-affiliated climate groups, including the Black Dog Institute, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, the Royal Australian College of Physicians and the Australian Adolescent Health Association, as well as child and mental health organisations.
Dr Dey says neither mental health professionals nor teachers should be encouraged to pathologize negative feelings about climate change.
In fact, the field has opted for the terminology “climate distress” over “climate anxiety” to better encapsulate the full range of valid emotions felt in response to a real and serious problem.
Anxiety disorders, in contrast, typically involve disproportionate responses to threats, such as acute fear of the dark.
“Worrying about a real threat is not inherently pathological,” says Dr Dey.
“It’s more like adjusting to chronic illness, where there’s a real problem that you have to learn to live with.”
Jana Menssink, project coordinator at the University of Melbourne’s Center for Youth Mental Health, says climate information, like other weighty topics, needs to be presented in developmentally safe ways.
“No subject is too early or too early to teach a child as long as it is developmentally appropriate,” he told AAP.
“Parents and teachers can be really afraid to talk about death, but then if a student’s cat dies, you should try to find a developmentally appropriate way to support the young person through this transition.”
Similarly, age matters when it comes to discussions about climate action to avoid placing too much responsibility on young shoulders; For example, it is best to learn about nature and littering in the early years of primary education, and opportunities for participation are gradually increased.
Context also helps children manage feelings of guilt, he says; This includes avoiding overinflating individual impact when companies are the largest emitters of greenhouse gases.
