Italy Becomes the First Country to Make Climate Change Study Mandatory in Schools

To get the curriculum and the teachers ready, the government is working with experts like Jeffrey Sachs, the director of the Harvard Institute for International Development.

Lessons will vary depending on age group, with elementary school students learning about the role of the environment through storybooks and older students through the actual science and the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

According to Fioramonti, 33 hours per year — one hour per school week — will be dedicated to addressing climate change issues, starting next September. “The entire ministry is being changed,” he said, “to make sustainability and climate change the center of the education model.”