FAQ

Anyone can.
All the resources are provided for free.
You can start an Academy in a school, a university, a place of work of
in the community.

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 learners aged 16 and upwards.
The satellite projects can be run for students aged 12 and up.

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 was originally designed to run for 1 or 2 years. But it can be run in shorter or longer time frames. However long it runs for, the first phase is dedicated to establishing a proper systemic understanding of the sustainability crisis. The second phases 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, can lead to the emergence of the skills of systems entrepreneurship.

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 aims to support a greener planet has its value. However, an honest reflection on many of our responses to the climate crisis reveals that there is often little distinction between the projects carried out in primary education and those undertaken in secondary school and beyond.

As a result, older students in secondary education can quickly become disengaged, bored, or even cynical about green initiatives. The Climate Academy addresses this by challenging more mature students and lifelong learners to engage with the climate crisis at a level that truly reflects their abilities and interests.

It provides students with a rare opportunity to think and act systemically—going far beyond the depth typically possible within traditional subjects and rigid timetables. At the same time, it offers lifelong learners the chance to develop a deeper, more meaningful understanding of the climate crisis and how to respond to it.

Grab a friend with a similar heart, head and ambition. Think about when and where to meet & then get going with Chapter One. You will soon find yourself plotting to do an impactful project and it is likely that more friends will want to join in.
Maybe you know a teacher who would love to support you?

There are many different approaches. Most commonly, the Climate Academy programme is offered to gifted or motivated students as a prestigious extracurricular activity.

It gives students whose abilities may be less visible in school the opportunity to discover and develop their talents, while also allowing more visible students to further extend their skills through meaningful projects with recognised value.

If a teacher sets up a Climate Academy in this way, the shared experience and insight of the staffroom is important in selecting a balanced group of students, including a mix of talents, interests, genders, backgrounds, and nationalities.

Some Climate Academies have been run within English language classes, while others operate as Saturday clubs in international schools. The material is highly adaptable and can be used in a wide range of contexts.

Grab a friend with a similar heart, head and ambition. Think about when and where to meet and then get going. You might soon find yourself plotting to do an impactful project that is rooted in your own subject specialism.

For example, organising an event with a special guest can create a lot of energy and attention, and you get to advance your own experience and understanding at the same time.

Maybe you are part of a green initiative or group already? Maybe you feel isolated at work or in retirement by the fact that not many seem to “get it”? Perhaps there are a couple of like-minded people who would like to invest a bit of time into doing something with impact and traction?

The Climate Academy offers materials and an approach which is a bit different to the usual environmental storylines and approach – in particular, its fusing of science and culture.

There are no blocks or costs to giving it a go. It can start with just a few friends taking some time over a coffee to talk through a few chapters in the book. Then who knows what ideas or projects can emerge from that.

The remaining carbon budget 2°C is very limited. There is therefore little time remaining for human civilization to avoid stepping into a minefield of Earth System tipping points.

However, major social change has always started on the fringes and it has always looked utterly improbable until it has happened.

But there is a significant historical fact that is on our side. The Harvard Professor of Public Policy, Erica Chenoweth, examined hundreds of historical campaigns in the 20th century. The patterns in the data for successful non-violent revolutions or campaigns indicate that overturning the status quo does not require a huge majority of people to be actively engaged in the struggle.

With just 3.5% of people fully committing to the cause, at a peak moment, there is a very high chance of success.

One feature of successful movements is that they were able to leverage action – a key insight that The Climate Academy programme is mindful of.

So, even if it doesn’t feel like it, even if things seem entrenched and immovable, history is on the side of those on the margins who want to overturn an injustice.

Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “The Tipping Point” (2000) has an important subtitle: “How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”.

Transformative change is not just wishful thinking, there is data to support the hope that things can suddenly flip in a positive way.

The pace and rhythm of a Climate Academy is fully flexible. In the most typical scenario, a school group would function best on a commitment of about 1.5 hours per week.
It is a hybrid learning programme:
 45 minutes of reading/research at home, either reading The Climate Academy Student Book, or watching the chapter video
on YouTube.
 45 minutes together with the group and teacher.

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 objective of any Academy is to create a strong and accurate understanding of the climate crisis and the broader sustainability challenges facing humanity. These essential foundations are established during the first stage of learning through the “Student Climate Book”.

This resource provides students with the knowledge and stability they need to develop their own individual projects, interests, and initiatives throughout the rest of the programme.

A complete overview of the different badges and activities is available here (hyperlink to Moodle). However, some examples of activities that an Academy member can participate in include:

* Creating and organising a podcast or video competition focused on the importance of “tipping points”.
* Organising an event with an expert to discuss the significance of global heating reaching 1.5°C and 2°C.
* Arranging an event within a company, organisation, or institution to explain the importance of the CUTx Index.
* Interviewing a scientist, politician, or cultural figure about the risks of ecological illiteracy.
* Organising a street protest using national CUTx Index figures as the central message on banners and in speeches, while engaging with local or national media to promote awareness.
* Working with a Geography teacher to create a learning module for younger students that demonstrates the global inequality between emissions from “Very High” and “Low” developed nations using the CUTx Index.
* Contacting neighbouring schools and encouraging them to create their own Climate Academy.
* Designing and promoting a social media campaign focused on the CUTx Index.
* Producing a series of podcasts exploring a climate change issue with strong local impacts, such as sea-level rise, melting glaciers, or flooding, while connecting these issues to the wider global context.
* Collaborating with other Climate Academies around the world on shared projects, such as “The Writing’s on the Wall”.
* Organising an event before a COP meeting, together with an expert or public figure, to highlight the importance of the CUTx Index.
* Attending a major conference and delivering a speech about the work of the Academy or the importance of the CUTx Index.

Each of these activities offers different levels of certification, allowing students to receive recognition based on their level of involvement and achievement.

The Climate Academy has a growing list of leading scientists, public and cultural figure who have endorsed the value of the programme and the certificates.
Check out the latest list here: (hyperlink)

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.

The Climate Academy programme offers a distinctive level of systems understanding. It enables schools to adopt a truly holistic response to the climate crisis—one that evolves and deepens alongside students as they progress through their studies.

It also creates opportunities to produce publications and events that stand out for their depth, clarity, and intellectual rigour.

The “Student Climate Guide” is a comprehensive collection of chapters that brings together the key components of the crisis into a clear, interconnected framework. In doing so, it provides a complete, 360° understanding of the issues for learners.

This level of insight is typically beyond the reach of students aged 16–19, as the subject matter is often too technically complex and presented within a formal academic context.

The Climate Academy is dedicated to the public understanding of science and culture. It believes in the value of public wealth and the importance of education in the struggle with misinformation.

In a world where knowledge and data are so often commercialized, or worse, weaponized, it is important the education offers a safe and free space for people to develop and grow.

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’.