The Climate Action Countdown

There’s a lot of energy around climate action in UK schools at the moment. The school strikes for the climate showed that students expected more, and long-running campaigns were able to take that point to the authorities. The government published a new sustainability strategy for schools at COP26, and the infrastructure is now emerging to serve that strategy.

I’m part of that myself, with my new role as a Climate Action Advisor with the Let’s Go Zero team. By the autumn there will be a network of advisors supporting schools across the country. There’s also a national network of climate ambassadors being recruited at the moment. They will be volunteers with particular expertise, able to give one-off support to schools in their environmental action. And of course there are all the existing programmes, some of which have been running for decades, such as eco-schools. All of these various strands are working together to make schools forerunners of a sustainable future.

There’s a nice example of that working together kicking off shortly, the Climate Action Countdown. Coordinated by my colleagues at Let’s Go Zero, it’s a month of climate activities for schools. Different organisations have contributed the activities, and schools can use as much or as little as they want from the selection.

One day is organised by Surfers Against Sewage and their Plastic Free Schools campaign. ProVeg, who help schools to create more sustainable menus, are doing a picnic. SOS from the Kids have got a song to learn. There are activities from the Eden Project, the Wildlife Trusts, SusTrans and the Tree Council, among many others. Along with 30 days worth of activities, there are other resources to use, from colouring in sheets to assembly plans. You can find it all here, and it all starts on June 7th, so there’s still time to tell local schools about it and sign up.

Two things I really like about the Climate Action Countdown: first, it’s a genuine collaboration. We don’t want rival campaigns competing for attention from schools and duplicating each other’s work. All the partners in the countdown are committed to promoting every other organisation. And second, it’s a demonstration of the breadth of work going on with young people across the country – groups specifically changing the culture around food, transport or waste. Groups teaching climate science, others using music and the arts to teach about the climate.

This energy, you might notice, is coming from charities and campaign organisations. The government is involved but is not driving it, though the ideal would be for government to pick up on the change and make it policy, supporting and funding it effectively. Like so many, I await the election and a new start.

It takes a while to find funding, structure a programme and recruit a team to deliver it, but the school strikes have played a big part in what is happening at the moment. I hope the young people that took part in them, most of whom are no longer at school, are aware that children today are benefitting from their actions. If you were one of them, thank you – and tell your friends.

• Does your school need some support from a Climate Action Advisor? Get in touch.