Researchers Quantify the Impact of Climate Change Education on Carbon Emissions

Researchers from the Green Ninja Team and San Jose State University have quantified the impact of education on reducing individual carbon emissions.  The recently published paper in PLOS ONE -- “The role of climate change education on individual lifetime carbon emissions” (Cordero, Centeno and Todd, 2020) -- demonstrates that students in California who received a high-quality climate change education went on to reduce their personal and household carbon emissions by an average of nearly 3 tons per year compared to the average Californian. The study reveals that if similar education programs were applied at scale, the potential reductions in carbon emissions would be of similar magnitude to other large-scale mitigation strategies, such as wide-scale adoption of rooftop solar or electric vehicles.

“This is the first time anyone has quantified the carbon-emission reduction impact of high-quality environmental education,” said lead author Eugene Cordero. “We hope that this research will encourage policymakers to recognize education as one of the most effective tools we have to achieve our carbon emission reduction goals.”

This research laid the groundwork for the Green Ninja curriculum that is currently being used in middle schools throughout California.  

The original research publication can be viewed here.