Environmental and sustainability education in Australia

Environmental (and sustainability) education has been on the formal education agenda in Australia for 50 years now. While much good has happened, the past decade has not been prosperous, and there has been neither a strong platform nor momentum at government levels to achieve Agenda 2030 in Australia. Nevertheless, whether it is the diversity and accessibility of land-based and other environments in Australia, the relatively high levels of support and robustness of its diverse education systems, the near full enrolment of primary aged students, and the continuing high levels of professionalism among teachers—including their willingness to address climate change and other environmental challenges—there are strong indicators that the situation could be turned around. What has to be confronted is poor leadership at government levels. The previous Australia Government de-funded the national action plan of education for sustainability (DEWHA 2009) in 2010 and sustainability became an unmeasured cross-curriculum priority in the Australian Curriculum. Consequently, much activity has been left to the committed individual principal or teacher (who often burns out or leaves the field) rather than part of the mainstream. The May 2022 federal election that resulted not only in a change of government, but a clear message from voters that they expected more ambitious and immediate action on climate change, provides hope that environmental and sustainability education will be formally recognized, administratively supported, and funded in a more substantial way.