How education can transform children’s anxiety into agency in the climate emergency

Adaptive responses

As the first youth envoy to the preceding 27th UN Climate Conference in Egypt (COP27), I facilitated the participation of children and young people in the climate negotiations, ensuring that their perspectives were integrated. Together with the Children and Youth Constituency, we organised a youth policy forum bringing ministers and negotiators together with young people at COP27.

The forum led to the inclusion of text in the conference’s outcome decision on children and young people, including the appointment of the first youth envoy—a role that has become permanently institutionalised for all future UN climate conferences.67 Throughout my term I witnessed the psychological burden and burnout faced by young climate activists while advocating for climate action. But I also saw how they collectively transformed their climate anxiety into agency in these intergovernmental forums.

The question is, how can educators, parents, and policy makers enable children to understand and reflect on their psychological responses to climate change? An important first step is to listen to children’s fears and hopes for the planet without downplaying their emotional reactions to distressing climate related information. Instead, validate their concerns using simple science, and explain that climate anxiety is likely an adaptive response to the climate crisis rather than a pathological one.

Creating safe spaces such as climate cafes can strengthen children’s ability to process and express challenging emotions, allowing them to overcome the fear of judgment and stigma while fostering their resilience. These discussions can also benefit mental health more broadly by normalising conversations about mental health and wellbeing. Discussing inspiring stories of climate action, along with measures to take as a family or in the community, can help reinforce the idea that something can be done to tackle climate change.

While schools play a critical role in educating children about climate change and fostering climate action, 70% of educators in the UK report that they haven’t been adequately trained to teach students about the effects of climate change or solutions.8 The Climate Cares Centre and the youth led group Force of Nature are already making efforts worldwide to equip teachers and school leaders with resources and training on climate and mental health education.910 Educators have an opportunity to develop climate and mental health competencies that school leaders and governing bodies can incorporate into the curriculum at local and national levels. These competencies can be taught through art, drama, music, creative writing, and storytelling to empower children to understand their emotional responses to climate change and envision their future roles in tackling it.

Furthermore, schools could establish student sustainability groups that facilitate opportunities for students to act on climate change in the school and the wider community. Another intervention could involve organising simulations of the UN Climate Conference for children, as previously done by Save the Children, where children represent different continents, discuss major environmental challenges, and propose solutions. This approach amplifies children’s voices, which can then be shared with country leaders.11

Interventions

Despite an expanding body of evidence on how climate change affects children’s mental health, there’s still a lack of knowledge about how these effects are experienced by different age groups, which types of interventions are effective, and why. More research is needed to guide the development of mental health and psychosocial support interventions for children, parents, and carers. This support should be integrated into social services, healthcare, and educational facilities, as well as during disaster preparedness and response efforts.

Scaling up child responsive mental health services in climate planning is necessary and requires sufficient funding. This would help protect children from immediate distress while mitigating the long term mental health consequences resulting from their exposure to extreme climate events.

Children, as a positive disruptive demographic, are determined to change the world. As members of the health community we have a collective responsibility to foster wider conversations, awareness, and research into the psychological impact of climate change on children. This should be complemented by collaborating with schools and organisations to develop educational programmes and interventions that equip children, and those caring for them, with the psychological tools for coping and acting in the climate emergency.