The challenges posed by climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution have become defining issues of our time. These crises are global in scope, affecting all regions of the planet, with impacts felt across all sectors of society. Facing these daunting challenges requires rethinking how we engage with the environment and, more deeply, how human systems in general operate. Education is at the heart of this transformative effort. It enables individuals to grasp the complexities of environmental systems, understand the interconnectedness of ecological, social, and economic factors, and ultimately take informed and responsible action. This report takes a strategic life-span perspective on education and skills policies for a sustainable future, spanning from primary schooling to higher education and lifelong learning. Drawing on multi-disciplinary insights and examples of policies and practices from around the world, it provides actionable insights and recommendations on the role that education and training systems can play in fostering transformative change and building resilient societies. These recommendations focus on (1) empowering citizens and communities for action, (2) fostering informed consumption and lifestyle choices, and (3) equipping individuals with the skills needed for changing labour markets in response to the greening of economies and societies.
Empowered Citizens, Informed Consumers and Skilled Workers
Abstract
Executive summary
Unchecked, the interrelated planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution have the potential to impact every dimension of human existence, imperiling lives, livelihoods, and the social and economic stability of countries and regions, alongside the natural environment on which we all depend. This report highlights that education and training systems are deeply intertwined with these challenges, both as vulnerable to the impacts of these socio-ecological crises, and as crucial in shaping behaviours, collective action and skills that can support sustainable societies and greening economies.
The report argues for a holistic, lifecycle approach to sustainability education that spans from compulsory schooling through to vocational education and training, higher education and lifelong learning. While compulsory education can potentially reach all children and youth at a critical developmental age and lay the foundation for widespread change, focussing on adult education is equally important. Given the urgency of the climate crisis and the speed of change in societies and economies, supporting relevant lifelong learning across education levels, sectors and settings is the only way to ensuring effective societal responses within the timeframes required.
Citizens’ agency, i.e. the ability of individuals to positively shape their own lives and the world around them, is at the heart of the report. In the context of sustainability challenges, agency must be grounded in a solid understanding of the relationships between ecological and social systems and a range of transversal competencies, including scientific and systems thinking and capacity for collective action. Fostering these competencies across the lifecycle requires embedding them across curricula, qualifications and study programmes, bringing place-based, interdisciplinary and experiential approaches to scale, and building bridges across formal, non-formal and informal learning opportunities.
The focus on individual and collective agency should not be understood as passing the responsibility for climate mitigation from governments to individuals and communities. Instead, it reflects that socio-behavioural change, alongside stringent policies and accountability, is an essential part of all pathways to net-zero carbon emissions, and one over which education and training systems have considerable leverage. While socio-behavioural change matters, it must be embedded in a systemic perspective. Education and skills approaches should offer learners age-appropriate tools to situate their own action with understanding of broader sectoral and system changes.
Beyond essential sustainability competencies, education and skills strategies must focus on fostering the technical and transversal skills that allow individuals to pursue sustainable careers and benefit from the green transition. The policies countries are adopting globally to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions are reshaping local labour markets by reducing jobs in high-emission industries, creating new opportunities in climate-friendly sectors, and transforming many existing occupations. Skills and labour shortages are projected for key green sectors, which risks slowing down progress towards climate goals and may exacerbate inequalities if there is insufficient attention to helping workers transition out of emission-intensive sectors.
Education and skills policies are crucial to ensuring a just transition. The green transition is generating high-quality jobs, but these are primarily concentrated in high-skill occupations. By contrast, low-skill green-driven jobs tend to offer lower wages and less job security than other low-skill occupations, making them less appealing for lower-educated workers. This highlights the critical role of education and skills policies in supporting the transition, alongside labour market policies to enhance the quality of these jobs.
Skills development policies to date are not keeping up with the required pace of change. On average across OECD countries, only around four in ten adults participate in formal or non-formal learning for job-related reasons, and workers in high-emissions occupations tend to train significantly less than other workers. Given their close connection to the labour market, vocational education and training (VET), higher and adult education systems are uniquely positioned to provide relevant initial programmes and reskilling and upskilling opportunities for the green transition. Stronger alignment between these different sectors and collaboration of key stakeholders around a common vision for skills development will be key to meeting the challenges of the green transition.
1. Adapt curricula, qualifications and study programmes. To support curriculum adaptation, governments can foster collaboration across key stakeholders to map the extent to which sustainability competencies, and key technical and transversal skills, are covered in curricula and qualifications, identify gap areas and develop guidance to support curriculum adaptation.
2. Upskill educators across levels and sectors of education: Mainstreaming sustainability in initial teacher education, and in continuing professional learning opportunities for educators across schools, vocational and higher education, can help break down silos and disseminate innovative and interdisciplinary teaching approaches that align with sustainability goals and the needs of green industries.
3. Bring place-based approaches to scale. Place-based and collaborative practices, including whole-institution approaches and local partnerships, can support inclusion and foster agency for socio-behavioural change via experiential learning. Governments can help bring effective practice to scale by providing frameworks, resources, and incentives, such as green labelling programmes.
4. Build bridges across formal, non-formal and informal learning. Formal education providers, in particular higher education institutions, can play a key role in science communication, consumer education and awareness-raising campaigns around climate change. Governments can enhance these links, for example by investing in support centres for science communication.
5. Strengthen skills assessment and anticipation. Considering the impact of net-zero targets and environmental policies on labour market and skills demands is key to inform national skills strategies. Governments can support effective skills assessment and anticipation processes by ensuring broad stakeholder involvement and tailoring approaches to regional contexts.
6. Enhance “green” career guidance. Sustainability-oriented career guidance can empower individuals to transform their motivation to act into sustainable careers, connect educational pathways with broader social and environmental goals, and support workers in transitioning out of declining industries and towards high-quality jobs in green sectors.
7. Develop a coherent and inclusive skills delivery landscape across vocational, higher and adult education. Governments can facilitate co-operation and strategic alignment across post-secondary education providers and industries, regional authorities and other relevant actors to adapt initial programme offers, expand upskilling and reskilling opportunities and remove barriers to participation in training.
