The Climate Change Performance Index 2025, published by Germanwatch, the NewClimate Institute, and the Climate Action Network (CAN) International, shows that Malaysia is making progress, rising 11 places to 48th position.
However, in reality, our country still remains in the low-performance category. Although Malaysia contributes only around 0.8 per cent of total global greenhouse gas emissions and is classified as a Non-Annex I country under the Paris Agreement, we are still actively working to combat the negative effects of climate change.
Achieving net zero by 2050 will not be possible through policies alone. It requires long-term planning – namely nurturing a young generation that is knowledgeable, skilled, and ready to act.
The role of green education by the United Nations (UN) under Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is one of Unesco’s key instruments for addressing the urgent challenges facing the world. It aims to empower society with the knowledge, skills, values, attitudes, and behaviours needed to live harmoniously and sustainably with the environment, economy, and community. ESD encourages individuals to make wise and responsible choices to build a better future for all.
However, at the global level, the gap in climate education mastery remains wide. Unesco’s analysis of 100 national curriculum frameworks found that nearly half make no mention of climate change. Meanwhile, a 2021 study showed that 70 per cent of young people could not explain the basic concepts of climate change.
This underscores the fact that green education must go beyond information delivery, instead fostering values, attitudes, and leadership that drive effective action.
To shape a generation that can adapt, Malaysia must take firm and strategic steps.
In schools, climate education content needs to be integrated, in line with SDG indicator 4.7.1, which measures the extent to which ESD and global citizenship education – including climate change education – are mainstreamed into a country’s education system. There is also SDG indicator 13.3.1, which assesses the degree to which climate change education is incorporated into curricula and teacher training to raise awareness and adaptive capacity.
This should be accompanied by comprehensive updates to teacher training and student assessment. To achieve an impactful and lasting transformation in climate education, schools should also be encouraged to set clear annual targets, such as implementing at least one student-led mitigation or adaptation project that delivers tangible outcomes, inspires community participation, and fosters practical skills in sustainability.
In universities, all fields of study can incorporate assessed, action-oriented activities such as energy audits, waste reduction campaigns, or citizen science programmes that use participatory research approaches to involve communities in environmental monitoring, in line with Unesco’s goals through the Greening Education Framework.
The private sector also plays an important role in fostering green education by providing matching grants and industrial training credits for intensive, short, and focused “green sprint” projects or programmes with students, themed around energy conservation, logistics management, or sustainable product design.
This approach opens opportunities for companies to report the impact of green education partnerships as part of their sustainability strategies. In this context, a voluntary benchmarking mechanism could be developed to evaluate and recognise successful industry–education collaborations that deliver ESD outcomes such as climate modules in curricula, green skills training, or community projects.
This mechanism could be linked to corporate SDG/ESG reporting, providing incentives for companies to invest in quality education partnerships.
This proposal aligns with the Greening Education Partnership’s mandate to “green” all aspects of learning, while providing an indicator framework to measure the extent to which ESD and climate change education are mainstreamed in policy, curricula, teacher training, and student assessment.
Government institutions must step forward and lead by example, transforming ministries, hospitals, and city councils into living sites where students are invited to access real data, observe operations first-hand, and actively implement interventions that create measurable, real-world impact.
At these sites, energy and waste dashboards can be installed to display real-time or periodic data on electricity and water usage, as well as waste volumes, including breakdowns of organic waste, recyclables, and general waste.
School or university students in sustainability, energy management, or environmental technology courses could be given access to analyse these data, develop actionable improvement proposals, and implement interventions together with the agencies, leading to resource savings, waste reduction, and increased public awareness.
Student involvement in these initiatives should be seen as part of community–government synergy in enhancing organisational performance, with outcomes and impacts recorded and highlighted in annual reports. This ensures that sustainability reporting goes beyond announcing policies and instead demonstrates real-world learning and action.
Environmental issues can be likened to a dispute within one’s granary – full of challenges and conflicting interests. Yet, if the spirit of young people is shaped with knowledge, values, and a drive for action through green education, there will always be hope.
The net zero target for 2050 is not merely a dream on paper, but a goal that can be realised when today’s generation – shaped through the contributions of multiple sectors – becomes the problem-solvers of tomorrow.
Green education is both the key and the platform for producing leaders who not only understand the complexity of environmental challenges but are also prepared to lead the search for solutions.
Dr Azizi Abu Bakar is a research officer at Universiti Malaya Sustainable Development Centre.
The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of Twentytwo13.
