Five arguments for including Net Zero in the curriculum

Blog post

Five arguments for including Net Zero in the curriculum

Steve Puttick, Associate Professor of Teacher Education at University of Oxford Isobel Talks, Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Lecturer at University of Oxford Amelia Farber, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Oxford Grace Healy, UCL, Institute of Education 28 Jan 2026

There are currently zero mentions of Net Zero in the different school curricula across the UK, and this situation is echoed internationally. A number of curriculum reviews are under way, including in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Each has generated lots of attention and a mix of contradictory arguments, including calls to reduce subject content (AQA, 2024), and calls to increase content, such as: oracy skills (Bell Foundation, 2024), global histories (HA, 2024) and financial literacy (Rach, 2025). Professional associations and learned societies have put forward impassioned arguments for the importance of their own disciplines and its deserved place in a crowded marketplace of subjects, and there are increasing calls – many driven by young people (Youth Shadow Panel, 2025) – for greater attention to climate change. However, curriculum space is limited.

Discussions about what should be included in the curriculum – and what should be excluded – have a long history. As Plato phrased the question in The Republic: ‘We have to be careful not to leave out any relevant argument or to swamp the discussion with too many topics’ (Plato, ca. 375 B.C.E./2008). The world is full of incredible, interesting and important things that would be wonderful for all young people to encounter, but they can’t all be included in the curriculum. So, why should some of this precious curriculum space be given to Net Zero?

We outline five arguments for including Net Zero in the curriculum. These arguments have emerged through the Natural Environment Research Council-funded ‘Agile Sprint’ , which draws on a wide range of interdisciplinary expertise. The arguments touch on issues of: futures, empowerment, complexity, public reasoning and justice.

Future-proofing

Achieving Net Zero is widely understood as vital for humanity’s future on earth. Transitioning to low-carbon societies requires young people to be equipped with knowledge and skills that are well suited for this complex task. Understanding the concept of Net Zero is necessary for understanding and shaping these more sustainable futures, and education has a key role to play in preparing students for the future.

Empowering action

The climate crisis has contributed to increasing levels of anxiety and disempowerment among young people. Young people also demonstrate powerful pro-environmental emotions. The active and solution-focused nature of Net Zero offers promising potential for equipping young people with the scientific understanding and critical thinking necessary for meaningful personal and collective action that fosters a sense of agency while also centring societal, corporate, governmental and inter-governmental roles and responsibilities.

Navigating complexity

Climate change is a ‘wicked problem’ that affects multiple aspects of the earth system, and is understood through a wide range of disciplines spanning natural and social sciences, humanities and arts. Knowledge about climate change is rapidly changing, and is permeated with different types of uncertainty. Net Zero education is ideally positioned to help students develop the skills to understand and navigate these (and other) complex systems. We shouldn’t underestimate the scale of the intellectual task in recontextualising dynamic, interdisciplinary knowledge into a form that is understandable and engaging for young people in school, yet this is a vital educational opportunity opened by Net Zero.

Public reasoning

Net Zero is widely seen as the ‘defining lens’ (Black et al., 2021) through which climate change and decarbonisation are viewed. Everyone needs to understand the terms of the debate before they can take part, and so embedding Net Zero in the curriculum is essential for students to become active participants in democratic life. Net Zero opens opportunities to evaluate evidence, engage with diverse perspectives, and participate in reasoned dialogue about contested issues, including energy policy, transportation, and loss and damage. These experiences strengthen capacity for public reasoning: the ability to deliberate about possible futures, and how best to get there.

‘Everyone needs to understand the terms of the debate before they can take part, and so embedding Net Zero in the curriculum is essential for students to become active participants in democratic life.’

Fostering justice

Climate change is deeply unfair. The weight of risk is disproportionately felt by the Global South – and most acutely by the most marginalised – whereas the responsibility for current greenhouse gas levels was disproportionately produced by the Global North. Questions about epistemic justice also highlight continuing inequities around knowledge production and climate change. Teaching Net Zero enables students to examine these vital questions about justice across a range of scales, fostering a deeper understanding of responsibility, fairness and solidarity. Addressing issues about justice opened through Net Zero empowers young people to imagine and create more sustainable and just futures.

We are entering a period of significant curricular change calling for greater emphasis on sustainability and climate change, offering a critical opportunity to embed high-quality Net Zero education for all – and it should not be missed.

References

Assessment and Qualifications Alliance [AQA ].(2024). Cut curriculum content to allow students to develop wider skills.

Bell Foundation. (2024). Response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review.

Black, R., Smith, S., & Hale, T. (2021, May 10) Net zero: Despite the greenwash, it’s vital for tackling climate change, The Conversation.

Historical Association [HA]. (2024). Summary response to the 2024 Curriculum and Assessment Review call for evidence in England.

Plato (2008). The Republic (R. Waterfield Trans.) Oxford University Press. (Original work published ca. 375 B.C.E.).

Rach, S. (2025, May 9). Call for curriculum reform to boost financial education. Financial Times.

Youth Shadow Panel. (2025). Shadow Curriculum and Assessment Review final report.

Steve Puttick, Dr

Associate Professor of Teacher Education at University of Oxford

Steve Puttick is associate professor of teacher education at the University of Oxford, and fellow of St Anne’s College. He is subject lead for the Geography PGCE and MSc Learning Teaching. Steve is a qualified geography teacher and was previously the head of department at a comprehensive secondary school, and head of programmes at Bishop Grosseteste University. He holds an MA in Educational Leadership and Innovation from Warwick University, an MSc in Educational Research Methodology and DPhil in Education from the University of Oxford which were funded by an ESRC Studentship. He is a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He researches at the intersection between the academic discipline and school subject of geography, including recent work on Climate Change Education Futures in India funded by GCRF in collaboration with colleagues at IISER, Pune, and on the role of cultural heritage in curriculum making in Kolkata. Steve serves on the editorial board of the journal...

Isobel Talks, Dr

Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Lecturer at University of Oxford

Isobel Talks is a postdoctoral research fellow and lecturer. She earned her DPhil in 2022 from the Department of Education at Oxford, with a dissertation critically examining development, gender and education in Bangladesh. Isobel co-created and co-teaches the course ‘Environmental Education’ in the Department of Geography. She is passionate about agroecology and ensuring that we have the skills we need for transforming our food system so that it is better for people and the planet. Isobel was a Co-Investigator on the ‘Skills for Sustainable Farming Futures’ Fell Funded project and was a part of the organising team for the 2025 Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit with the United Nations. Currently she is working on a project about Net Zero education. Isobel consults for both the NAEE and NAAEE (National and North American Associations of Environmental Education). She also helps to facilitate the Agroecology Research Collaboration which is a joint initiative from...

Amelia Farber, Dr

Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Oxford

Dr. Amelia Farber is an Environmental Change Research Fellow at Reuben College in the University of Oxford and a postdoctoral researcher within the Department of Education. She is an environmentalist with passions in environmental, climate, and Net Zero education, environmental emotions, polycrisis awareness and action, ecological justice (including humans), and equity. She holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford’s Department of Education, which focused on learning from younger children in the Galápagos Islands what they know and how they learn about their local ecology and environment. Her work is child centric, ecocentric, and seeks to learn from historically and contemporarily excluded human and more-than-human voices. She has conducted multiple projects in the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, working with children, schools, non-profits, and the National Park and advises and works for the non-profit, EcoEducate, on evaluating current and future sustainability literacy...

Grace Healy, Dr

University College London

Grace Healy is Education Director (Secondary) at the David Ross Education Trust. She has held various leadership roles with a focus on curriculum/teacher development and Initial Teacher Education. Grace is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, an Honorary Associate Professor at IOE UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, and Associate Fellow of the UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education. Grace is committed to productive participation within communities of geography educators and education researchers, and holds positions such as Treasurer for the Geography Education Research Collective (GEReCo), and member of British Educational Research Association (��ɫ��)’s Publications Committee. Grace is an Associate Editor for The Curriculum Journal and serves on the editorial boards of the London Review of Education and Teaching Geography.