With so much educational policy change underway, it is worth asking how current changes to New Zealand’s curriculum and assessment structures will address and support better climate education for our learners. Early responses to the updated science and social science curriculum have raised concerns about a lack of visibility and coherence for climate change learning up to Year 10. Final curriculum for the senior levels (Years 11-13) are yet to be released. There is currently little information about how the new senior secondary qualification will enhance students’ climate education opportunities.
What we do know is that secondary students’ current opportunities to engage in climate learning and action is variable, according to findings from the 2025 National Survey of Secondary Schools.
Just under half of teachers said climate change was a focus in some of their teaching
We asked secondary teachers whether climate change was a focus in any of their teaching. Just over half (53%) said climate change is not a focus in any of their teaching, and the remaining 47% said it was at least a minor focus in at least one class they teach.
Of those who did address climate change in any of their teaching, science, social science, and sustainability subjects were the most common contexts; however, there were examples indicated across every learning area, as well as some integrated or interdisciplinary programmes. In our survey, smaller numbers of teachers incorporated climate change learning in classes including religious studies, careers, trades subjects, food-related subjects, health and PE subjects, outdoor education programmes, learning support, and whānau class time.
These findings show that climate education draws on knowledge and practices from many different disciplines. With the right knowledge, support, and resources, teachers can find ways to use climate and sustainability contexts in almost any area they teach. However, because it can be teacher-dependent, it also means that some students may miss out.
Students were building climate-related knowledge, but were less likely to be learning through action
We asked teachers what students did in classes where climate change was a focus. For example, learning about the impacts for Aotearoa New Zealand (82%), global causes and consequences (81%), exploring a range of solutions to climate challenges (74%), and exploring the social, emotional, and cultural impacts for themselves and their communities (73%). These are important areas for learners to build rich, relevant, contextualised climate change knowledge.
However, effective climate education needs to go beyond simply transmitting knowledge. Young people also need opportunities to develop agency, meaningful connections, and the capacity to participate in meaningful individual and collective action (UNESCO, 2024).
Our survey indicated that it was much less common for students to be carrying out action projects, for example, to reduce or offset their school’s emissions (32%), or social and community actions to support local or national climate action (26%). These two items also had the highest levels of disagreement from teachers.
Local research provides examples of the rich learning that can occur secondary students are engaging in these kinds of activities, such as nature restoration or food garden projects, campaigns to support sustainable school transport, and students acting as facilitators for community engagement in local and regional climate policy and action plans (Bolstad, 2024; Bolstad & Durie, 2024). However, there are also many systemic challenges for secondary students to learn through involvement in authentic action-based projects. These include timetabling constraints, the individualised nature of most senior secondary assessments, and the time and workload demands of these assessments.
What are other countries doing about climate education?
Many global institutions (UNESCO, 2024) and countries are actively working to integrate and strengthen climate change education in curricula. A November 2025 review of England’s curriculum (DfE, 2025) explicitly identified climate change and sustainability as key areas requiring stronger and more coherent inclusion. Ireland has a School Sector Climate Action Mandate (DfE, 2023-2025) which explicitly frames schools as sites for developing climate awareness and behaviour change, including through teaching, culture, student participation, and whole-school approaches. From 2025, Ireland is introducing a new leaving certificate subject: Climate action and sustainable development (NCCA 2024).
At COP28, around 40 countries signed a declaration on climate change and education that include pledges to:
- emphasise the role of education in supporting all learners to develop adequate knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to adapt to new climate realities and develop innovative solutions for a sustainable future
- develop comprehensive education sector strategies to build climate smart and resilient education systems that prepare all learners to actively engage in climate mitigation; and
- leverage the role of education to achieve net zero emissions in the education sector.
Although New Zealand was not one of the signatories, we are a member state of UNESCO’s Greening Education Partnership. Given our rapidly changing policy context, it remains to be seen whether New Zealand will be a leader in climate education – or be left behind.
References
Bolstad, R. (2024). Mana ora: Students decarbonising schools. Evaluation report. New Zealand Council for Educational Research. https://doi.org/10.18296/rep.0040
Bolstad, R., & Durie, K. (2024). Ki te ako āhuarangi tōnui ki Aotearoa | Towards flourishing climate education in Aotearoa New Zealand. NZCER. https://doi.org/10.18296/rep.0060
Department for Education. (2025). Curriculum and assessment review: Building a world-class curriculum for all (Final report).
Department of Education. (2023). School sector technical climate action roadmap 2023–2030.
Department of Education. (2023–2025). School sector climate action mandate. https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-education/publications/school-sector-climate-action-mandate/
MacDonald, J., Bolstad, R., Dong, J., Boyd, S., Rowe-Williams, J., Coblentz, D., Hunt, D., Alansari, M., Gibbs, B., & Priestley, H. (2026). Secondary principals’ perspectives from the 2025 national survey Uiuinga ā-Motu o ngā Kura. New Zealand Council for Educational Research. https://doi.org/10.18296/ rep.0098
MacDonald, J., Bolstad, R., Dong, J., Boyd, S., Gibbs, B., Rowe-Williams, J., Alansari, M., Hunt, D., Coblentz, D., & Fisher, J. (2026). Secondary teachers’ perspectives from the 2025 national survey Uiuinga ā-Motu o ngā Kura. New Zealand Council for Educational Research. https://doi.org/10.18296/rep.0102
National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). (2024). Climate action and sustainable development (Leaving Certificate subject). https://ncca.ie/en/senior-cycle/curriculum-developments/climate-action-and-sustainable-development/
UNESCO. (2024). Greening Curriculum Guidance: Teaching and learning for climate action. Paris: UNESCO. https://doi.org/10.54675/AOOZ1758