For the last few years, climate change has become the hot environmental issue in Indonesia and in many other countries. Seasonal changes, increasing air temperatures, and abnormal climate patterns are creating a higher frequency of local and regional disasters such as flooding, tropical cyclones, droughts, forest and bush fires (as well as haze), and rises in sea level. Massive industrial and urban growth, as well as land conversion and deforestation, are considered the main contributors to climate change, releasing carbon into the atmosphere, widening the gap in the ozone layer, and ultimately, increasing the infiltration of solar heat.

However, people’s level of knowledge about the issue tends to be limited, since the causes of climate change lie somewhat beyond their own realities. What they know relates mainly to their local context, such as increasing local temperatures or sporadic flooding, and people fail to make a causal connection between the different symptoms.

Education plays an important role in raising awareness but climate education currently does not exist in many countries, including Indonesia. We, as one of the prominent international organisations working with education and climate security in Indonesia, decided to commission a study which would look at perceptions about climate change amongst school communities and what currently exists in the field of climate education.

The objective was to see whether we could play a role in both building capacity and developing resources and curriculum in this important area. This study was conducted in five different cities, representing different environmental contexts: from well-developed but severely compromised environments to underdeveloped relatively pristine environments of the tropical forest regions. The target areas chosen were Yogyakarta, Surabaya (East Java), Samarinda (East Kalimantan) and Jayapura (Papua). One additional location incorporated into the study was Malang (East Java) following a proposal from a local British Council volunteer.

The study was conducted using three different methodologies: distributed questionnaires among SD, SMP and SMA students and teachers (primary and secondary levels) and university students, in-depth interviews with some key informants (mostly university teachers), and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with local educational practitioners, including teachers, university teachers, university students, local education office staff, and NGO activists. The study involved twelve weeks of desk study, field surveys, data collection, and data analysis carried out between March and June 2008.

We refer you to this Climate Education Report for further information about the work.