Today, 3.4 million teachers and students from 149 countries celebrated Climate Action Day, the culminating event of the Climate Action Project, a program of Take Action Global (TAG), a leading climate action education organization. The sixth year of the Climate Action Project was supported by partners LEGO, Earth Day Organization, World Wildlife Fund, and UN Environment Programme. Website: www.climate-action.info. 

“Something happens when people from different locations and different life experiences come together to create change,” said TAG co-founder Dr. Jennifer Williams, “When students join in local and global action and as they become united in an effort for taking on a problem as big as the climate crisis, they start to understand how in this world we all fit together.”

The six-week program, which has grown in size and scope each year, brings together thousands of schools from around the world to examine climate change and environmental literacy. Students progress through weekly activities exploring causes, effects, and solutions. Classrooms engage in class-to-class virtual exchanges where they work with students from other countries as they consider both local and global implications. In the final week, teachers and students join with project partners Climate Action Day, a global online celebration as they share their learning, actions, and even inventions with world leaders, leading climate scientists and researchers, and international youth activists. Schools and classrooms receive recognition for their efforts with a certificate. 

The project is free and open to all PreK-12 classrooms, and curriculum and lesson plans are available in 16 languages. The new EarthProject app helps students track their efforts by showing amounts of avoided carbon reflecting the effects of climate education.

“Climate action education has an important role to tackle climate change on a global scale. It informs students, takes away climate anxiety, and brings important skills to a classroom including empathy, creativity, and problem-solving,” shared TAG co-founder Koen Timmers.