Time is running out.

The human made climate emergency threatens our future and the very existence of the natural world we care so deeply about.

We want a green and thriving planet with a harmony between humans and nature. A planet that is fair, where we live good lives within the Earth's limits.

We believe that environmental education is key to the world we describe above. 

As a group of young people from the UK, we have seen first-hand the uneven distribution of what we’re learning about at school. Environmental education across the UK is not equal. Our learning often lacks a focus on the local effects of climate change and doesn’t always link to the context of our lives. 

Natural England reported in April 2022 that ‘80% of children and young people in this survey agreed that looking after the environment was important to them and 83% said they wanted to do more to look after the environment.’ We want to take action, but many of us lack the support and opportunities we need. For many of us, the result is growing despair and eco-anxiety.

This needs to change.

We are calling on all educational leaders to make environmental education, in all its forms, their priority. 

As a bare minimum we want all children and young people to learn about the environment as a core part of our education journey.

However, environmental education in its fullest sense is more than the learning of the facts. Environmental education means learning about the natural world and integrating the outdoors into the classroom.

When we say that we want more and better environmental education this is what we mean:  

• Help children to collaborate with one another.
• Encourage their creativity.
• Nurture their compassion for themselves, each other, and the planet. 
• Enable them to grow up prepared for the ever-changing world we live in.
   

We want our knowledge to improve, but also to help us develop skills we will carry with us for the rest of our lives.

We are directing this to educational leaders. We want them to deliver a plan to embed environmental education as a core component of all children’s and young people’s education.

The Transform Our World Youth Ambassadors are a group of young volunteers working with Transform Our World, a collaborative resource hub and community of environmental educators coordinated by environmental charity Global Action Plan.