How can climate education reach beyond the already knowledgable?

I know this question comes up often within our sector, but recently I’ve had a few experiences that have really made me think. Who are we actually reaching with our climate education messages?

I worry that alot of what happens in the climate education space, however well-intentioned or carefully designed just lands in front of people who already care. People who came to the workshop voluntarily on a Tuesday evening with a reusable coffee cup or who heard about it from their friends, local communtiy centre, spaces they are already engaged with. Not a bad thing, but I’m just not sure it’s enough.

Climate Education: The Echo Chamber Problem

I recently chatted with a colleague in the sector who said how great the atmosphere was at the minute, that they really felt they had made some breakthroughs. My throwaway reply was, ‘that’s great – it’s always good when you see new faces’. It soon became clear that they hadn’t seen any new faces for some months, and a further enquiry into why they felt so optimistic also turned up that they are seeing more ‘positive messages on socials’ – both of which are symptomatic of an algorithm just showing you what you engage with.

The climate education sector has produced some genuinely impressive tools over the past decade. I have attended some amazing collaborative workshops that map systems thinking, I deliver them myself with Climate Fresk and Carbon Literacy – activities that sicence, solutions and causes tangible. Role-play formats that put participants in the seat of a policymaker or a future generation. Online modules that let people learn at their own pace. The pace of growth and innovation is inpsiring.

But: across almost every format, the research tells the same story: pro-environmental activities attract pro-environmental people. The person who books onto a climate workshop, signs up for a webinar, or volunteers their lunch break for an awareness session is, overwhelmingly, someone who already accepts the science and already wants to act. We are, to a significant degree, training the converted. Which has it’s place – giving solutions to someone inspired is incredibly advantageous. Pushing people into the next step, the next influence layer, the next action.

But we know that it’s deeper than that – cultural fit matters. Tone matters. Context matters. We don’t always get it right, obviously, but in some communities, a clumsy intervention can actively set back engagement.

To be clear: I’m not arguing for or against any particular training method. Most of you reading this will know the training and educatoin that I deliver anyway – namely Carbon Literacy and Climate Fresk. The tools that exist in the climate education space, systems-mapping workshops, Carbon Literacy programmes, interactive scenario tools, documentary-style media content , Climate Fresk are mostly good. Some are excellent.

The issue is that they’re almost all opt-in.

Opt-in means self-selected. Self-selected means motivated. Motivated means already on board. And “already on board” is not where the gap is.

Think about who isn’t in the room: the line manager who’s never been asked to think about supply chain emissions. The parent who’s heard so many contradictory headlines that they’ve tuned out entirely. The small business owner who associates “climate training” with cost, compliance, and lectures from people who don’t understand how their industry works. The teenager who got one lesson on recycling in Year 8 and nothing since.

These are the people the climate sector needs to reach. And right now, most of our mechanisms aren’t designed to reach them.

This hit home for me when I was delivering a workshop to groups at a schools climate conference recently, one of the teachers came over to me, apologetic, as he ‘had completely misunderstood what the pupils would be doing and had brought out some kids that wouldn’t normally be here’ – he was worried about their behaviour… being the ones traditionally in trouble at school. Truth is I loved delivering that workshop -yes I had to work harder to engage them, and they asked more ‘difficult’ questions – but they were the students I needed to speak to. I learnt from them, they learnt (hopefully!) from me!

The Hard Truth About School Climate Education

Schools should be the great leveller. Unlike every other climate education channel (that I can think of, I’m sure someone may have other ideas!), they reach everyone across income, background, and household attitude to climate change. A child whose parents have never thought about carbon footprints still sits in a classroom.

In practice, climate education in schools is patchy, under-resourced, and structurally marginalised. It isn’t a statutory subject – yet- it’s woven into geography and science where time allows, delivered by teachers who may not feel confident with the material, and possibly deprioritised when exam pressure arrives.

Excellent curriculum frameworks exist. Individual teachers are doing remarkable work. But none of that compensates for a system that hasn’t decided, at policy level, that this is essential. Until climate literacy is a named, assessed, properly resourced part of the curriculum rather than a cross-curricular theme that can be quietly ignored we are relying on goodwill. And goodwill doesn’t scale.

Workplaces: Another Strong Lever We’re Not Using Hard Enough

Workplace-based climate education has something almost no other channel can offer: a non-self-selected audience.

When an organisation embeds climate literacy into induction, into professional development, into team training it reaches people who didn’t choose to be there. Think of the other workplace courses – seatbelt safety, fire awareness, and food hygiene became genuinely embedded across society. Not through opt-in workshops but structured, mandatory, culturally normalised training. (Health and Safety is a common theme here!)

Accredited workplace programmes have already reached hundreds of thousands of people across the UK. The question is whether depth of engagement matches breadth of reach, and whether organisations are treating this as genuine culture change or as a compliance exercise to be forgotten by Friday. (This is why I love Carbon Literacy – but again another blog for another day!)

The infrastructure exists. The reach is real. The sector needs to push harder for this to become standard,not a progressive employer’s optional extra, but an expected part of how any serious organisation operates.

What Can We Do? Using the Systems We Already Have But More Aggressively

Beyond education and training, there’s a set of regulatory and legal tools that the climate sector consistently underuses. It’s time to be less polite about them.

Ofcom regulates broadcasting standards. When news programmes give unchallenged airtime to climate sceptics, not for balance, but through lazy both-sidesing that structurally equates fringe denial with scientific consensus, that is a standards issue. Formal complaints can be filed. Most people don’t know this and so most climate educators don’t think to do it. But complaints create a paper trail, generate attention, and signal to broadcasters that audiences are paying attention.

The Advertising Standards Authority has become increasingly active on greenwashing. Misleading environmental claims in advertising are reportable. Organisations like ClientEarth and the Good Law Project have demonstrated what’s possible when legal and regulatory routes are used with intent.

And for anyone who’s been told that a misleading claim is “just an advert” or “just an opinion piece” – press regulators like IPSO also accept complaints. The bar for action is not as high as people assume.

The tools exist. They’re sitting there. We just need more people willing to use them, consistently and strategically.

So What Do We Actually Do Differently?

A few direct suggestions from me:

• Push for workplace Carbon Literacy to become a sector standard – embedded in induction and professional development, not offered as an optional extra for sustainability champions.
• Lobby for statutory, assessed climate education in schools. Not a theme or a module. A subject, with time and resource behind it.
• Design training that doesn’t require prior buy-in. Stop optimising for the already-engaged and start asking what works for someone who thinks this is all a bit much. (Leading community work? Encourage bring a friend!)
• File Ofcom complaints when broadcast coverage misleads. File ASA complaints when adverts greenwash. Make formal objections. Be the person who does this, every time.
• Stop measuring impact by room capacity and workshop ratings. Start measuring it by who wasn’t in the room before, and is now.

The climate training and education sector has built genuinely good tools. The problem isn’t quality. The problem is that we keep offering them to the same people, in the same formats, through the same opt-in channels.

It’s time to get serious about who isn’t in the room, and why.

On climate education in schools

Department for Education / Royal Meteorological Society (2024) Climate Literacy Survey of school leavers — Year 11. RMetS / DfE. https://www.rmets.org/news/department-education-climate-literacy-survey-2024  Government survey finding that 17% of Year 11 pupils couldn’t recall ever being taught about climate change, and identifying significant gaps in curriculum coverage.

Schools Week (December 2024) Pupils have ‘poor’ climate change understanding — DfE study. Schools Week. https://schoolsweek.co.uk/pupils-have-poor-climate-change-understanding-says-dfe-study/  News coverage of the 2024 DfE survey findings, including calls from the Geographical Association for statutory primary-level climate education.

Carbon Brief (2021) The climate-change gaps in the UK school curriculum. Carbon Brief. https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-the-climate-change-gaps-in-the-uk-school-curriculum/  Analysis of where climate change does and doesn’t appear in the national curriculum, including the finding that nine in ten teachers agree it should be compulsory, but fewer than three in ten feel equipped to teach it.

Greer et al. (2025) Curriculum making and climate change and sustainability education: a case study of school teachers’ practices from England. Environmental Education Research. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13504622.2025.2471990  Survey of 700+ teachers in England exploring how climate education is delivered in practice and where structural barriers lie.

Carbon Literacy Project (2026) School Sector: https://carbonliteracy.com/schools/

Wastepack Group (November 2025) Government to integrate climate education across school curriculum. wastepackgroup.co.uk. https://www.wastepackgroup.co.uk/2025/11/14/climate-education-school-curriculum/  Overview of the 2024 curriculum review findings and the DfE’s announcement that climate literacy and sustainability will be foregrounded in reformed primary and secondary curricula.

On workplace climate education and Carbon Literacy

Carbon Literacy Project (2026) 2025 Year in Review. carbonliteracy.com. https://carbonliteracy.com/2025-year-in-review/  Annual review confirming that the Carbon Literacy Project passed the 150,000 certified learners milestone in 2025, with 33,054 certifications in that year alone.

Carbon Literacy Project About Us. carbonliteracy.com. https://carbonliteracy.com/about-us/  Overview of the Carbon Literacy Trust’s mission, accreditation model, and international reach.

On Ofcom, broadcasting standards, and regulatory tools

Down to Earth (March 2026) UK’s broadcasting regulator Ofcom to investigate climate misinformation and bias. downtoearth.org.in. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/climate-change/uks-broadcasting-regulator-ofcom-to-investigate-climate-misinformation-and-bias  Reports Ofcom’s 2026 decision to open formal investigations into TalkTV following more than 15,000 complaints about climate misinformation — the first such probes since 2017.

Left Foot Forward (February 2026) Ofcom urged to act over TalkTV’s broadcast of climate misinformation. Left Foot Forward. https://leftfootforward.org/2026/02/ofcom-urged-to-act-over-talktvs-broadcast-of-climate-misinformation/  Details the Good Law Project and Stop Funding Heat’s formal complaint campaign, and the Ofcom broadcasting code rules at stake (Rules 2.1, 2.2, 5.1).

Stop Funding Heat Tell Ofcom: Climate denial has no place on our TVs. stopfundingheat.info. https://stopfundingheat.info/campaign/tell-ofcom-climate-denial-has-no-place-on-our-tvs/  Practical campaign page including step-by-step guidance on how to file a complaint with Ofcom about climate misinformation in broadcasting.

BBC News (2017) Ofcom to investigate BBC climate change interview. BBC News. https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42400653  Background on the first successful Ofcom intervention on climate broadcasting standards, following the Lord Lawson interview on Radio 4’s Today programme.

References correct as of May 2026. URLs verified at time of writing.