The most recent climate statistics are frightening: global temperatures in the first quarter of 2025 are the second highest ever on record. As temperatures are rising, so too is the incidence of extreme weather, from droughts and floods, to heatwaves and wildfires, and with more than three billion people living in areas of high vulnerability to climate change.
It is clear from scientific evidence the children and young people of today are the “generation most affected” by the climate crisis — a crisis they have been born into.
And yet, they will shoulder a disproportionate share of the burden of climate change, resulting in both direct and indirect impacts on their wellbeing across the lifespan.
Unicef’s recent report, ‘A Threat to Progress’, states “climate change is changing children… impacting almost every aspect of child health and wellbeing”.
In terms of health, children are now more susceptible to respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses and infectious disease as a direct result of changing air quality, water pollutants, extreme heat, and other ecosystem hazards.
From Los Angeles to Laos, more than 200 million children’s schooling was disrupted or displaced in the last year by extreme weather, such as flooding and wildfires. We know children experience trauma from these extreme weather events that they carry with them into adulthood.
We also know climate anxiety and distress are rising among children and young people worldwide, who report feelings of betrayal by the inaction of adults and policymakers.
This youngest generation are not just passive victims of climate impacts, they are potential catalysts for change. It is critical development of climate leadership among children and young people therefore starts as soon as possible.
Climate leadership with children means actively involving young people in understanding, addressing, and advocating for solutions to climate change. By combining education, empowerment, and action in age-appropriate ways, we help children become informed, responsible, and proactive members of their communities.
Recent research demonstrates the importance of developing climate leadership among children, where they can play an effective role in sustainability advocacy. Our children hold a unique position within their families, schools, and wider communities to promote pro-environmental behavioural change, because they possess powerful agency to drive awareness and action.
Climate leadership is dependent, however, on two key issues:
Children’s accurate knowledge of climate change;
And their active involvement in sustainability leadership activities, both inside and outside of school.
While primary schools are increasingly supported by national policies to embed education for sustainable development in the curriculum, The Global Learner Survey, ‘Making the grade for climate education: I learned about the weather, but not climate change’, shows frustration among learners worldwide about the adequacy of topics related to climate issues in school.
This issue is even more salient for young people, and their parents, since every job will have a climate component over the next decade, from doctors and nurses, to accountants, tradespeople, sustainability officers or policymakers.
It is understood children and young people require education in climate leadership. National Geographic Kids published a practical set of recommendations on How do you teach children about climate change?
This simply involved a three-step process of
Explaining the science of our world and environment;
Explaining the problems that are arising because of climate change;
Explaining the solutions.
This solution-driven approach is very much required by our young people to lead in climate change. However, we will have to be much more creative and applied in the education of our children and young people in climate change.
Kemmy Business School is leading on a new creative and applied climate initiative, Climate Leadership through Nature’s Canvas. This partnership with primary school teachers, children, and their families educates children about climate science through play and art, and offers all involved the opportunity to develop leadership skills while engaging in creative art and works.
This initiative challenges all participants to explore, create and lead. The first engagement with children involves the introduction to the Climate Fresk game. Children will solve a puzzle. Each piece of the puzzle represents a crucial aspect of climate change, from human activities to their environmental consequences, such as sea level rise or ocean acidification.
By linking puzzle pieces on the causes and consequences of climate change, children and their teachers will build a storyboard of climate change, becoming participative learners. What follows is a facilitated discussion on potential actions and solutions, with the intention of leaving all participants with a feeling of hope and empowerment to move toward action.
Next, in collaboration with Irish children’s artists, a Poetry Canopy (similar to a patchwork quilt inspired by poetry), will be created using recycled materials and natural objects. This collaborative green art activity is designed to help children and their teachers, understand environmental issues such as pollution, deforestation, and resource (over)use.
As they explore these topics through art, children gain a deeper awareness of the challenges associated with climate change and begin to appreciate the need for sustainable practices. This activity will also develop important leadership capabilities, such as self-awareness, collaboration, and communication. They will learn how to share ideas, listen to others, and find ways to compromise and influence in group settings.
There has been some very positive, albeit laboured steps in third-level education to embed climate courses or climate-related courses into the curricula such as climate change sociology and economics.
Despite the supportive nature of this inclusion, universities are challenged to integrate climate change into all curriculum.
However, we cannot afford to leave the key climate leadership skills education until this later stage.
Educating children about climate change from an early age helps instil lifelong sustainable habits, fosters critical thinking, and encourages the problem-solving skills needed to address the climate crisis.
An understanding of climate change enables young people to safeguard their health and wellbeing in the face of climate-related risks, while enabling them to become active citizens, environmental stewards, and leaders of climate justice.
The ‘ESD to 2030: Education for Sustainable Development’ report calls for the transformation of the learning environment in which it challenges all schools to approach education for sustainable development, “where learners learn what they live and live what they learn”.
To do this, climate leadership skills will be central to the advancement of this mission both by the educators and the learners’ alike.
Dr Mary Curtin, Dr Jean McCarthy and Dr Christina O’Connor teach at Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick