Italy will next year become the world’s first country to make it compulsory for schoolchildren to study climate change and sustainable development, Education Minister Lorenzo Fioramonti said. Fioramonti said all state schools would dedicate 33 hours per year, almost one hour per school week, to climate change issues starting next academic year. In addition, many traditional subjects, such as geography, mathematics and physics, will begin to be studied from the perspective of sustainable development. He stated: “I want to make the Italian education system the first education system that puts the environment and society at the core of everything we learn in school.”

He played a part in the government’s 2020 budget presentation which included taxes on airline flights, plastics, and on sugary drinks to address greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental issues. Surveys showed 70-80% of Italians backed taxing sugar and flights, as a way to discourage consumption which is harmful to the environment, while generating resources for schools, welfare, or lowering the income tax.

Fioramonti said the new government, which has gotten off to a shaky start with weeks of bickering over the budget, will only last if it enacts unique and brave actions, such as Climate Change curricula and taxes to discourage behaviors deemed bad for Climate Change.

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