Why you need a school climate action plan


This guide has been created to help schools create a climate action plan. This will help to fulfil the requirement set by the Department for Education‘s (DfE) sustainability and climate change strategy for education.

The DfE strategy states that “By 2025, all education settings will have nominated a sustainability lead and put in place a climate action plan”.

It also sets a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2037 across all education settings.

By creating a climate action plan, your school is taking the important first step to reach this target. It will also offer your school a number of other benefits.

  • Reduced energy bills. Using energy more efficiently can lower your schools' costs.

  • Being more prepared. Your school will be better adapted to deal with the negative effects of climate change, such as overheating.

  • An opportunity for students and staff to understand more about green careers and skills.

  • Improving your school’s reputation. You can become a leading example by showing your school is taking climate action.

  • Improved staff and student wellbeing.

As part of the DfE requirements, all school climate action plans must include at least one action from these four key areas:

  1. Decarbonisation

  2. Adaptation and resilience

  3. Biodiversity

  4. Climate education and green careers


There are also plenty of other things your school can do and other areas where you can make a change. Many of these areas also overlap.

This guide and template will help schools to create a meaningful action plan that fulfils the DfE requirements for education settings. It does this by combining helpful guidance in one place and offering practical tips on how to carry out the plan.

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