Blog post
Education on climate solutions must go beyond techno-fixes
Charlotte Wilson
June 4, 2026
Teach the Future has long campaigned for solutions-centred climate education.
We were therefore pleased to see that the final curriculum and assessment review report recognised young people’s “desire to support solutions”, and recommended that the new national curriculum “empowers young people with the necessary knowledge and skills to thrive in tomorrow’s industries and tackle the serious challenges facing our planet”.
With the curriculum drafting process well underway, now is a crucial time to clarify what we at Teach the Future mean by climate solutions. Because while the causes of climate change are scientifically undisputed, the solutions are still subject to heated political debate.
The DfE’s Political Impartiality in Schools guidance (2022) means that teachers have a duty to offer a balanced presentation of a range of opposing perspectives on how society should respond to climate change.
However, current education on climate solutions in the UK is far from balanced.
When I was at school, the climate solutions I was taught were almost entirely limited to techno-fixes: renewable energy, geoengineering and carbon capture. The curriculum and assessment review reaffirms this focus, stating “the solutions to the climate crisis require the expansion of green technology”.
Whilst technology has an important role to play in responding to the climate crisis, it is no panacea. During my entire school education there was no mention of power, capitalism or justice in relation to climate change. This is why climate education cannot be siloed into the sciences and geography, it also must be in history, politics, sociology and economics.
Presenting carbon capture and geoengineering as viable solutions is not balanced; it is misleading. There is limited scientific evidence that these technologies could even be deployed at scale, and they fail to address the root cause of the climate crisis: the relentless extraction of fossil fuels to support consumerist lifestyles and capital accumulation.
The renewable energy transition is not optional—it is imperative.
But it must be a just transition. This means ensuring that the shift to renewable energy does not disproportionately displace communities in the Global South to make way for commercial renewable energy projects that primarily serve the Global North. Climate education must reflect this complexity, exposing the human cost of extractivism. The green transition risks replicating the inequalities of the fossil fuel economy if it does not also centre climate justice.
A truly balanced curriculum means presenting not only market-based solutions such as offsetting and carbon trading, and individual behavioural changes like recycling and saving water, but also growth-critical perspectives that challenge our capitalist economic system.
The new curriculum presents an opportunity to transform climate education in the UK.
A better world is possible, but only if young people are equipped with the knowledge and critical thinking skills to combat misinformation, and support solutions that benefit both people and planet.
Our future depends on it.