2023-02-10
The Greens NSW have announced their plan to prepare schools for the impacts of climate change and ensure they are sustainable and comfortable spaces for students.
The Greens plan will:
- Introduce measures to reduce urban heat impacts on schools.
- Implement water recycling for non-potable uses at schools and TAFEs
- Ensure adequate air conditioning and heating in all classrooms.
- Expand school solar programs and transition schools to 100% renewable energy
- Ensure climate change and sustainability underpin the curriculum
- Ensure all students have the right to protest
Greens MLC and spokesperson for climate change Cate Faehrmann was proud to outline the NSW Greens’ Sustainable Schools plan at a NSW Teachers Federation conference yesterday.
Quotes attributable to Greens MP and spokesperson for education Tamara Smith:
"Students are leading the global uprising against the destruction of our planet and demanding that we address the climate catastrophe in the here and now
"Our public education system must embed sustainability and environmental awareness across the curriculum, and empower students and young people to understand and tackle the challenges that lay ahead.
"Schools across the state want to benefit from rooftop solar, use recycled water for gardens and sports fields, and have sustainability be a part of daily school life,” Tamara said.
Attributable to Greens MLC and spokesperson for climate change Cate Faehrmann:
“Our current planning system isn’t up to the job of making sure our schools are ready for hotter and more extreme weather. The Greens plan will make sure our schools are sustainable and comfortable now and into the future.
“It’s time to stop covering playgrounds in concrete and artificial grass that turn them into heat sinks or cramming students into poorly built buildings where they sweat more than they learn.
“Research shows that hotter days are bad for learning with each rise of one degree in classroom temperature above 27 degrees reducing learning by 2 percent. Many classrooms across the state regularly record temperatures in the high 20s and 30s on a hot summer day.
“If we don’t prepare our schools now a whole generation of students will suffer major disruption to their education because of the impacts of more extreme weather as a result of the climate crisis,” Cate said.
Quotes attributable to Greens candidate for Balmain Kobi Shetty:
“This climate crisis brought about by the failure of our political leaders and the corrupting influence of the fossil fuel industry is, and will be, clearly felt most acutely by our kids.
“Our schools need to be better equipped for the extreme weather that is already unfolding, brought about by our addiction to polluting fossil fuels.
“This climate crisis will affect all of us, wherever we are, and we need to urgently prepare our schools, as the real hearts of our community and learning environments for the next generation, for the extreme weather that is already impacting all of our lives,” Kobi said.