Climate justice: A lesson for secondary aged students�
CLIMATE JUSTICE EDUCATION: LESSON 2
Climate justice: A lesson for secondary aged students
This lesson was initially designed to accompany the Right Here Right Now summit at the University of Oxford, June 2025.
All lessons in the Climate Justice Education educational resources pack are available at: https://climate.web.ox.ac.uk/globalclimatesummit
Teacher notes are provided before the lesson and answers to questions/pedagogical suggestions are in the speaker notes.
This lesson is meant to take 20-25 minutes minimum but can be expanded with further discussion.
Authors: Dr. Travis T. Fuchs, Phoebe Mortimer
Teacher Notes
Resources:
Mini whiteboard - or improvise an equivalent
Rights of the Child
Local issue of climate justice
5 mins (or fewer if you can manage it) - Kiribati is pronounced Kiribass - register, students make suggestions for who is affected
2 mins - intro slides to Kiribati - just read through
2 mins -2 slides on relative and historic CO2e emissions (e+equivalent to cover all GHG) - take them quickly through this - focus is on Kiribati but encourage them to notice the range of contribution over time e.g. China is not main/only culprit
3 mins - slide on how you make it fair
5 mins - moving to local issue of flooding - could bring in your own example here - think about how to facilitate discussion
3 mins - writing task – two options, long and short given time - you can review what they have included that they feel is most important
Last slide - quick recap can be done as you dismiss class
CLIMATE JUSTICE
Today we are going to investigate the concept of climate justice so that we can ask the question how do we make the situation fairer for young people.
While you wait to start, please look below at the list of challenges in our struggling planet. For each one, make a suggestion of a group of people this challenge will affect most (e.g. economic status, geographical region)
Here is Kiribati, a nation of 33 islands in the South Pacific. The highest parts of its islands sit at an average of 2 metres above sea level (4 metres at its highest points) and it is projected to be the first nation to disappear entirely into the ocean on account of human caused climate change.
The sea around Kiribati has already risen 9cm in the past three decades. NASA projects that it will rise a further 15-30cm by 2050, and 50cm-100cm by the end of the century (2m in the worst-case scenario). In Kiribati people are working hard to mitigate and adapt to the the extreme weather, droughts, storm surges and salination wrought by climate change and sea level rise, even so a steady stream of people feel forced to emigrate every year.
In this photo, Tekimwau Otiawa from Kiribati's Ministry of Environment, is out checking on newly planted mangrove trees along the low-lying coast of South Tarawa. Planting mangroves is one way to help prevent coastal erosion, as their roots hold on to the soil and absorb some of the force of the waves.
Kiribati is one of the nations suffering/impacted most because of human caused climate change.
Task: Look at the average CO2e emissions below, then on your white boards write down how big a part you think Kiribati plays in causing it.
Canada
14 tons CO2e per person per year
Kiribati
0.5 tons CO2e per person per year
China
8.4 tons CO2e per person per year
Pakistan
0.8 tons CO2e per person per year
UK
4.4 tons CO2e per person per year
some
a little
Task: Now look at this graph showing cumulative emissions since 1750.
Does it change your previous answer?
Kiribati is one of the nations suffering most because of human caused climate change, it is also a nation that has played very little part in causing it.
Task: We might say that the situation is unfair. Is there any way we could make it fair? Working with your neighbour, come up with an idea on your white boards again.
Kiribati could be…
Other countries could…
This is the concept of climate justice: it is unfair that people who have played the least part in causing climate change suffer the most because of it. To make things fairer, those who are most responsible for causing it should help those most vulnerable to it to cope with it.
Let’s stick with water but move closer to home. Here’s a picture of a recreation ground in Oxford in one of the increasingly frequent floods.
Discuss: In Oxford, who do you think is most impacted by the floods caused by human caused climate change?
You could factor any of the following into your discussion:
What is fair or unfair here?
Climate justice is relevant everywhere. Those with least money, power and voice are likely to live in areas hit hardest by human caused climate change and they’ll also have fewer resources to be able to mitigate the impacts, for example by moving to a different area or paying to have their homes damp proofed.
Both children and the elderly are especially vulnerable.
When we think about the justice of this situation, it is relevant that young people cannot be said to have caused the climate change impacting public health.
Is there anyway we can make things fairer for young people today?
What about young people in the future? In 2030, or 2050 or 2100?
Last task: write a wishlist for your grandchild, saying what kind of future they deserve.
In the future my grandchild deserves:
Today we moved on to thinking about how unfair the climate and nature crisis is for young people. Next time we are going to move on to consider how litigation can work as a process to make things fairer for young people.
How can my rights be protected in a changing world?