FAQ

Teachers or students can set up an Academy.
Different levels of package are available.

Anywhere. Any nation, any city, any village. The materials are available in English. We are developing translations into many different languages.

The Climate Academy is designed for students aged 16-19.

There are normally about 12 students in an Academy. There is no fixed number. However, with an Academy of less than 5 there would be fewer opportunities for collaboration and mutual support, and with an Academy of more than 12 it would be a challenge to sustain focus and cohesion.

The Climate Academy programme runs for 2 years.

The first year is dedicated to establishing a proper systemic understanding of the sustainability crisis. The second year mobilises this understanding through civic service into the local, national or global community. Fully engaging both the head and the heart in these challenges of understanding and transformation, develop the skills of systems entrepreneurship.

The full programme could be fast-tracked into one year, or enlarged into three years.

Mainstream science describes the fact that we are in the middle of the 6th Mass Extinction Event, characterized by accelerating resource extractions, bio-diversity destruction and climate change.
Yet, despite these profound systemic threats to the future of human civilization, education programmes in secondary schools across the world have only ever made the most timid and fragmentary responses.
The Academy provides a safe space informed by the latest and most reliable science for young people to understand and respond to this crisis.

The CUTx Index is the core science that the Climate Academy is centred on. It provides a clear and coherent focus to all the different projects that the different Academies develop.
The importance of this Index becomes clearer and clearer as the students grapple with the systemic dimensions of the crisis. A full explanation of the Index is provided in the pedagogical materials.
The numbers of the CUTx Index are uniquely powerful. The reliability, clarity and importance of these numbers has been underlined by the world’s most eminent climate scientists. For example, Professor Kevin Anderson (former director of the Tyndall Centre), Dr Jian Liu (Chief Scientist, UNEP) & Dr Pavel Kabat (Chief Scientist, WMO).

Every project and initiative that promotes a greener planet has its value. Yet an honest look at most schools responses to the climate crisis shows that there is often little difference between the projects done in Primary School and those undertaken in Secondary.
Older students in secondary education are therefore quickly bored or cynical about green initiatives. The Climate Academy challenges mature students to respond to the climate crisis with a depth that matches their abilities and interests.
It also offers them a rare chance to think and act at a systemic level, something that traditional subjects and timetables cannot easily do.

A Climate Academy group might have some students who are academically gifted or inspired to make a change. It also offers the chance to some students whose skills are less visible in a school to discover and develop their talents.
If a teacher is establishing a Climate Academy, the collective experience and wisdom of the staffroom is essential in identifying the best mix of talents and interests, genders, backgrounds and nationalities. These students are then invited to form an Academy.
A fuller description of the best ‘fishing net’ for students can be found in the ‘Teacher Climate Guide’.
If the first impulse comes from the students, then this core group of young people is a great place to start (and they will probably have a great instinct for which teacher might best support them).

The remaining carbon budgets for 1.5°C and 2°C are very limited. At current speeds of emissions we only have 5 years left before the budget for 1.5°C is spent, and 15 years left before the budget for 2°C is gone.
There is simply no time left for slow, general syllabus reforms.
It is therefore imperative to invest time and resources into projects that have the maximum leverage. The materials of the Climate Academy get straight to the key points of the crisis, and the selected students will have the drive and capacity to make the most of it.
The design and delivery of projects around this material should be geared to have a wide and full impact on the whole school community. Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “The Tipping Point” (2000) has an important subtitle: “How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”.

The Climate Academy requires 1.5 hours per week of student time. It is a hybrid learning programme:
• 45 minutes of reading/research at home.
• 45 minutes together with the group and teacher.
As the programme progresses into the second year, the time at home and in the group becomes increasingly dedicated to designing and delivering projects.

Most Academies happen during lunchtime, because this is often the only moment inside a school day when all the students and the teacher are free.
It can also run after-school, or in the evening – especially if there is the opportunity to meet in a location outside of the school building. There are often better vibes when an Academy can meet in a fresh space.

The first task of any Academy is to establish a proper understanding of the climate crisis, and the wider crisis of sustainability that humanity is facing. These essential co-ordinates are put in place in the first phase of learning through the “Student Climate Book”.
This material provides the core stability for the students to develop their own particular projects and interests during the rest of the programme.

For example:
• Design and implement a podcast or video competition in school on the importance of “tipping points”.
• Organise an event in school, in collaboration with an expert, on the significance of global heating of 1.5°C and 2°C.
• Organise an event in a company, organization or institution about the importance of the CUTx Index.
• Interview a scientist, politician or cultural figure about the dangers of ecological illiteracy.
• Organise a street protest with the CUTx Index numbers for your nation as the central message in the banners and speeches. Contact the local or national press to cover the event.
• Develop, in collaboration with a Geography teacher, a module of lessons for younger students that highlight the global injustice between the emissions of the “Very High” and “Low” developed nations using the CUTx Index.
• Reach out to neighbouring schools to invite them to set up their own Academy.
• Design and promote a social media campaign centred on the CUTx Index.
• Develop a series of podcasts about a climate change issue that has profound local implications (eg. Sea level rise, glacial melts, flooding) and put it into a global context.
• Run a project alongside other Academies across the world. For example, “The Writing’s on the Wall”.
• Organise an event in the build up to a COP meeting, in collaboration with an expert or public figure, that highlights the importance of the CUTx Index.
• Attend a major conference, give a speech about the work of the Academy or the significance of the CUTx Index.

At the end of the 2 year programme the student will receive a certificate that confirms all the macro competences the students have acquired – mapped with all the micro details of the projects they have completed.

The Climate Academy works with OpenBadgesTM, for schools with the Full Impact package. Fuller details of this innovative system of certification can be found on the website.

For schools with the “Think and Act” package, a general certificate can be issued for both students and teachers.

The Climate Academy works in close collaboration with News Decoder, a global news service for young people.

This highly professional organization provides a range of support for Climate Academy students, such as interviewing, reporting and podcasting training resources and one-on-one mentoring with experienced journalists who guide the pitching, editing and publication of articles. Further details can be found on news-decoder.com.
Work with NewsDecoder is available for those schools with the “Full Impact” package.

Yes. Perhaps a particular teacher has got the space and vision to run the Climate Academy programme inside one of their classes on the traditional timetable.
This is most often possible in a foreign language subject when the competences of the course can be delivered through any kind of content. The advantage of this approach is that the teacher and students have frequent and regular contact time. The danger of this approach is that the content simply becomes something compulsory and therefore the students become more passive participants.

In May 2022 the Academies from Belgium and Holland met together for the first “Climate Academy Summit”, hosted in Brussels. In the morning, different experts from the EU Commission, and other institutions, provided a range of insights and support. In the afternoons, students worked intensively on their various projects.
Many more Climate Academy Summits will be organized in the future.

Environmental issues have continually been seen as a marginal concern. This is very odd.
“Physics is not the last concern of an architect, but the first. Likewise, a proper understanding of the chemistry of our atmosphere and the biology of our biosphere cannot be the last concern of our policy makers, but the first”. (“Plato Tackles Climate Change”, p27)
The problem might be that the decision makers in a school do not fully understand the depth and threat of the crisis. This can make any environmental gesture seem as good as the next. When a lot of time is put into different individual actions, most commonly concerned with recycling or plastics, it can choke out the energy and space for more systemic responses.
When presenting the Climate Academy to the decision makers in school, it is important to underline how the Academy can provide coherence to all the different projects taking place already. It is then important to highlight all the extra dimensions that a Climate Academy brings.

The Climate Academy programme offers a unique level of systems understanding. Schools and universities provide specialized knowledge inside distinct subject areas. Centred around the CUTx Index, the “Student Climate Guide” is a holistic set of chapters that pulls together the critical cogs of the crisis into a clear systemic view.
This level of understanding is normally out of reach for students aged 16-19 because the material is too technically advanced and written in a formal academic context.

So much climate change thinking and action is based on individual thinking and actions. This can lead to a simplistic view of the crisis, and a strong sense of disempowerment and guilt. By orientating the students towards a systemic outlook and by mobilizing them into projects with a systems perspective, the Academy offers a creative and empowering framework for young people to engage with the crisis.

In recognition of the poverty of most environmental education across the globe and the urgent need to move it forward, the Joint Research Centre of the EU Commission (JRC) published a sustainability competence framework in June 2022 – or “GreenComp” for short.

The introduction states, “This systemic change cannot be achieved only through political agreements, financial incentives or technological innovations, important and necessary though they are. Long-lasting change requires lifelong learning… Systemic change towards sustainability is a global necessity and a shared responsibility.”

The Climate Academy delivers many of these crucial skills that are so difficult to develop in the current systems of education: such as, ‘futures literacy’, ‘exploratory thinking’, ‘problem framing’, ‘political agency’, ‘collective action’, ‘critical thinking’, ‘systems thinking’ and ‘adaptability’.

The Climate Academy works in close collaboration with News Decoder, a global news service for young people.

This highly professional organization provides a range of support for Climate Academy students, such as interviewing, reporting and podcasting training resources and one-on-one mentoring with experienced journalists who guide the pitching, editing and publication of articles. Further details can be found on news-decoder.com.
Work with NewsDecoder is available for those schools with the “Full Impact” package.

Yes. Perhaps a particular teacher has got the space and vision to run the Climate Academy programme inside one of their classes on the traditional timetable.
This is most often possible in a foreign language subject when the competences of the course can be delivered through any kind of content. The advantage of this approach is that the teacher and students have frequent and regular contact time. The danger of this approach is that the content simply becomes something compulsory and therefore the students become more passive participants.

In May 2022 the Academies from Belgium and Holland met together for the first “Climate Academy Summit”, hosted in Brussels. In the morning, different experts from the EU Commission, and other institutions, provided a range of insights and support. In the afternoons, students worked intensively on their various projects.
Many more Climate Academy Summits will be organized in the future.