As we reflect on another wonderful week of Climate Action Week Live Lessons Nicola Davidson, our Education and Learning Officer, reflects on how we are delivering climate education at scale – supporting Scotland’s ambition to be a Net Zero Nation by 2045 and the Learning for Sustainability Action Plan Target 2030. She remembers her own experience of climate education and ponders on how it will be very different for her own daughter.
In 2021, to coincide with COP26 happening in Glasgow, Keep Scotland Beautiful launched our Climate Action Week Live Lessons with the aim of making climate education accessible to the whole of Scotland. Since then, our online Live Lessons have reached over 75,000 pupils across all local authorities in Scotland. It’s certainly been a busy four years!
Being involved in our Live Lessons – part of our Climate Action Schools programme - has made me realise how far climate education in Scotland has come. When I was at school in the 1990s, there was no mention of climate change at all, despite a strong scientific consensus on climate change and governments being made aware of the reality. The first climate COP took place in Berlin in 1995, but still climate change didn’t make it to my classroom. The only reason renewable energy was mentioned at all was because we were told that fossil fuels that were going to run out in the early part of the 21st century and we needed a replacement.
Flash forward 30 years and fossil fuels show no signs of running out, we continue to burn far too many of them and climate change is affecting people and nature across the world. I think education is one of the most important tools to help solve climate change, so it has been a privilege to be involved in organising and delivering our Climate Action Week Live Lessons.
Through our Live Lessons, we endeavour to deliver thought provoking, hopeful sessions which inspire educators, children and young people. To achieve that we enlisted the help of an incredible array of speakers, including story tellers, engineers, zookeepers and botanists.
We quickly adapted to online delivery, getting creative by having roving reporters out in schools and lessons delivered straight from exotic locations like the Highland Wildlife Park and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. We have covered many aspects of climate change, including a history of climate change, paths to net zero, sustainable homes and gardens, and story time for younger learners.
One of my favourite lessons was from the Highland Wildlife Park in 2024 when we looked at animal homes. It was great fun trying to spot wolves, squirrels and owls. I hope the young people enjoyed it as much as I did! Another favourite was our Q&A session in 2023 with the then Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero & Just Transition Màiri McAllan, as this was a wonderful opportunity to connect young people directly to politicians with the power to make change. This year, we launched a challenge to encourage pupils to take part in collective action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Throughout the week we delivered our lessons to more than 8,000 young people and reached an exciting total of more than 5,000 climate action points, which shows the power of young people working together.
As our Climate Action Week Live Lessons for 2025 come to an end, I am grateful that my own daughter has the chance to learn about climate change in school and has the opportunity to feel empowered to take action for a better future.
While our Climate Action Week Live Lessons may be over for another year, we still have plenty of activities and resources for young people to get involved with. Visit our Climate Action Schools page for more information or rewatch our Live Lessons here.
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