Create a Climate Action Plan
Why is this an important step in our sustainability journey?
Once you have appointed a Sustainability Lead and committed to the School Charter, the next step in your journey is to start developing your school’s climate Action Plan; the Department for Education has laid out the importance of every education setting having a climate action plan and has asked that all schools have one in place by the end of 2025.
Your Sustainability Lead will be the lead contact in your school for developing your school's Climate Action Plan.
The Climate Action Plan is a key step to developing a structured and strategic route towards educating and taking climate action across the four pillars of sustainability. This plan will enable you to plan, track and review your schools progress in your sustainability journey, with the support of other schools and the council.
What is a Climate Action Plan?
A Climate Action Plan is the document that contains an individual education setting’s strategy for becoming more sustainable. It lists specific actions that will be taken to implement the strategy. Climate action is an every changing landscape and therefore your Climate Action Plan should be agile to this.
The Department for Education requires every Climate Action Plan to address actions across four pillars:
- biodiversity
- adaptation and resilience
- decarbonisation
- climate education and green careers.
There is no specific format that a Climate Action Plan must take. It can also include actions your school is already taking, or planning to take to reflect your continuing progress.
Keeping your Climate Action Plan updated is important as it shows progress on your journey.
The Council is also keen to hear about your achievements so they can be shared with other schools. You can share case studies by emailing sustainableschools@barnet.gov.uk
How the council can support you in taking this step
The council is working in partnership with different initiatives to enable Barnet schools to develop and implement Climate Action Plans. These include providing logistical support in accessing these schemes, localising their resources and providing 1 to 1 support for schools from council staff or recruited volunteers.
This support includes;
- Barnet Climate Ambassadors programme
- Barnet Sustainability Lead mentoring
- Actions across the pillars
For more information or support on developing your Climate Action Plan email sustainableschools@barnet.gov.uk
Resources and further support
Sign-up to Let’s Go Zero, a national campaign that unites teachers, pupils, parents, and schools to work together towards achieving net zero. You can also receive support from a climate action advisor on how to develop a bespoke climate action plan for your setting.
Schools who wish to develop their plan alone can access the DfE’s official website for resources to support ideas generation for development of a climate action plan.