Definition: Climate change is measurable long-term change in an atmospheric or oceanic physical or chemical variable attributable to natural or anthropogenic effects (IPCC 2008).

Left alone, Indonesia may lose as a many as 2,000 low-lying islands by 2030 through climate change. Dozens of coastal cities and tens of millions of people will be under water.

Because of this, experts are warning that tomorrow’s generation will mostly bear the full brunt of climate change. Nothing can be further from the truth. Higher air temperature, declining rainfall, and extreme weather events are now daily occurrences. Young people don’t need to wait another twenty years to experience these.

From 2001 to 2004 alone there has been a doubling of floods across the archipelago according to a UNDP report. That’s close to 300 disasters annually. Farmers are chucking the traditional chart they’ve used for hundreds of years for planting and harvesting. The rain falls harder, but gets shorter and shorter every year. Dry season is longer, and hotter.

Yet, most efforts at mitigation and adaptation in countries like Indonesia seem to bypass the role of young people. In the past, government perceived eco-activists as political threat. Schools, meanwhile, “have not fully realised their capacity in building students and teachers’ awareness towards climate change,” wrote the respected national daily, Kompas.

The 'Mapping Climate Education in Indonesia: Opportunities for Development' is one of the first-ever attempt to survey climate education and teachers and students’ attitudes towards climate change in Indonesia.  

The results - which involved 1,710 students and 524 teachers in seven cities in four provinces across the archipelago - are surprising.

• 40% of students and 62% of teachers blame natural phenomenon, rather than deforestation, fossil fuel use, or poor waste management, as the cause of climate change.
• 10% believed it to be an “act of God” (which they have no power to intervene). Most think that planting trees is enough to avert further disasters.

Climate Education is not recognised as a subject in the education system of Indonesia. Environmental Education is built in to the curriculum and shares teaching time with other supplementary subjects, such as computer sciences, local languages. There is a view that environmental topics are only superficially discussed in the context of other related subjects, such as biology, physics, chemistry and geography.

We have developed teaching and learning materials with the UK’s Royal Geographical Society, and the Royal Meterorological Society for climate issues for students and teachers name Climate4Classrooms (C4C). This material has just being launched in March 2011 and can be accessed at www.climate4classrooms.org.

To complement the English version and to add relevant local context, C4C has also equipped with teaching plans and syllabus based on the curriculum set up by Ministry of National Education (Kemendiknas).  Climate change content is integrated into multidisciplinary subjects to avoid increased teaching time for teachers and students. Step by step guide in doing real action at school also available from Elementary to Senior High School level where teachers and students can learn not just from text books but also from real environment activities.

We would welcome your comments on the draft materials and the website. You can access the offline version (link to pdf file) of this material, and help us make the resource as relevant and interesting as possible.  

Visit C4C website for further information