The department for education is ensuring schools do their part to help tackle climate change. The UK is aiming to reach net zero emissions by 2050 which is now only 25 years away.
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00:00Climate change is a massive problem in Bristol and all areas of the United Kingdom, and the
00:07City of Bristol is helping to reach our climate change goal. As part of this, the Department
00:13for Education is now encouraging schools to become greener as part of the goal for reaching
00:18net zero emissions by 2025. The department has said that schools need to have their own
00:25action plans by the end of 2025, giving them 25 years to help reach our sustainability
00:31goal.
00:32What is your opinion on that? Do you think we should kind of be educating our children
00:36in being eco-friendly and recycling and things?
00:39Yeah, I think that's a great opportunity, partly because obviously schools emit carbon
00:44and have a footprint on the environment, so making them cleaner is great, but at the same
00:48time the opportunity to help raise kids with sustainability in mind, both in terms of carbon
00:54emissions but in terms of the climate and nature, and obviously, yeah, putting a little
00:57bit of nature into as many schools as possible helps give kids the best start, better for
01:02them, better for nature, so yes, all round great.
01:05The UK government have called for schools to be a bit more eco-friendly and green, kind
01:09of educating the children in how to be green. What is your opinion on that?
01:13Well, yeah, I mean, we're all in favour of it, aren't we? We're in favour of less pollution
01:17and more recycling, and yeah, obviously, it's a good thing.
01:21Many schools are already doing their part by making sure their pupils receive a robust
01:27climate and nature education. One thing they are doing is a nature park programme led by
01:32the Natural History Museum that has been running for around a year. In that time, children
01:38at more than 4,000 schools, nurseries and colleges across every region of England have
01:44been busy building green walls, digging ponds and growing pollinator-friendly plants.
01:51Secondly, the Department for Education is supporting schools to slash emissions as part
01:57of the Let's Go Zero programme, but what do locals think?
02:04One thing that the UK government has called for is for schools to be more green, kind
02:09of educating children in how to be looking after the environment and things like that.
02:13What is your opinion on that?
02:14I think that's a really good idea. I think teaching kids today about the Norman Conquest
02:18isn't that relevant. I think the world's moved on. So I think you need to teach kids about,
02:24yeah, the environment, the planet. I think you need to teach them how to manage money.
02:28It's a whole different careers landscape out there as well, isn't it? So yeah, I think
02:33there's significant changes that need to be made, definitely.
02:35Do you think as well schools can be greener? Things like having solar panels, because a
02:39lot of schools use a lot of-
02:40Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm amazed they haven't done it already. If you've got schools
02:44that have got rooftops and things like that, absolutely. But where's the money coming from?
02:48Are they going to reap the rewards of the cost of that, or is it going to be sold to
02:53a third party, and then they make all the money out of it? So yeah, it's a multi-layered
02:58thing, isn't it? It's quite complicated.