Nurturing the Future: Climate Ambassadors and how to support Early Years’ Sustainability Efforts

In the face of increasing climate challenges, the role of early years education in fostering a sustainable future is more crucial than ever. The values and behaviours instilled in children during their formative years can set the stage for a lifetime of environmental stewardship. As part of the Department for Education’s Sustainability and Climate Change […]

Tanya Svilar

October 2, 2025

As part of the Department for Education’s Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy all education settings in England from Early Years (in a non-domestic setting) to Post-16 are expected to have a sustainability lead and a climate action plan in place by the end of 2025, with them going on to develop and implement this over the coming years.

Climate Action Plans are a detailed, whole-setting plan to enable a nursery, school or college to commence or continue sustainability initiatives in a way that suits their needs. Climate Action Plans cover four ‘pillars’:-

Adaptation & resilience – making your teaching environments more comfortable and climate-ready, helping to reduce disruptions and improve learning outcomes.
Biodiversity – supporting learners to have hands-on experiences in nature through creating green spaces that provide habitats for wildlife, enhance wellbeing and bring learning to life.
Climate education & green careers – build confidence to teach climate and sustainability across the curriculum, supporting learners to develop the skills and knowledge they’ll need for a changing world.
Decarbonisation – supporting your setting to cut carbon emissions and save money – from heating and lighting to travel and food – while engaging children in real-world problem-solving.

The Department for Education are funding or supporting a national package of free, high-quality resources and support to help education settings on their sustainability journeys including Climate Ambassadors, National Education Nature Park, Sustainability Support for Education and Let’s Go Zero.

Q1: What is a Climate Ambassador?

Climate Ambassadors are trained, DBS-checked volunteers offering free support to help education settings to develop and deliver impactful Climate Action Plans. That might be some specialist, technical support around energy audits, advice on adaptation measures in overheating buildings; or it may be more general around how to construct a climate action plan or to support behaviour change in your community, for example.

Climate Ambassadors work alongside the other initiatives in the DfE’s Strategy including:-

National Education Nature Park supports settings to develop their outdoor spaces and nature-positive behaviours and includes extensive quality-assured cross-curricular resources.

Sustainability Support for Education, signposts a development pathway through a wide range of quality-assured resources.

Let’s Go Zero is not funded by DfE but also works in partnership with these projects, offering support to education settings to develop climate action plans.

Q2: How can they help early years settings with sustainability and their climate action plan? (Include an example or two in this answer)

Climate Ambassadors can support early years settings to play an active role in practical sustainability action that goes beyond ‘bins and lightbulbs’. Together, we can nurture a generation of children who will lead the charge for a sustainable future and ensure our sector can continue to create wider ripples of impact across our communities.

Our Climate Ambassadors are working with increasing numbers of Early Years settings across England, responding to the needs that settings themselves have identified – this could be about how to make a start and recognise how much is already happening; or it could be some more detailed support to progress decarbonisation and energy saving, for example.

Emma is a Climate Ambassador and Educational Psychologist in the East Midlands and has supported a number of Early Years settings develop Climate Action Plans who are at the start of their sustainability journeys. She starts by listening carefully to a setting talk about their sustainability actions and ideas, helping them to identify all the good practice that they already have. This could include child-led surveys of lighting or wildlife and parent / carer and staff surveys of transport and food, for example. She then helps them to select actions, goals, resources and SMART targets for the future – about habitats and weather or learning to feel safe and to care for one another, for example.

In contrast, Tom is a Climate Ambassador and Local Authority Sustainability Officer in the West Midlands working with a nursery that was already making great strides in climate action through growing sustainable produce, having a green roof, and getting energy from solar and wind. However, they wanted external support to further reduce their carbon emissions and costs. Tom supported them to create and implement a Climate Action Plan to plan for and take actions including:

Undertaking a biodiversity and energy assessment,
Calculating their carbon footprint,
Teaching their staff and children about sustainability through activities like tree planting and guest visits.

Q3: Is there a charge for a Climate Ambassadors help and support?

No! All support from Climate Ambassadors and the wider DfE support programmes is free, so please make the most of the opportunity and those chance to build your sustainability networks! Starting or continuing to work on climate action planning has significant benefits environmentally and financially. This work also supports wellbeing of pupils and staff and also equips children with knowledge and skills for life in a changing world.

Q4: How does a setting get in touch to find out more and arrange support?

You can request free support from a Climate Ambassador online – make sure that you register as a Community Group and state that you need support with climate action planning. LINK TO THE PDF WITH EY-SPECIFC GUIDANCE

You can also contact your regional hub to seek support – contact details below.

Q5: If someone is interested in becoming a climate ambassador, what do they need to do?

Taking your enthusiasm, knowledge and experience from your professional and personal life could place you in a great position to train and volunteer as a Climate Ambassador and offer mentorship and support to local nurseries, schools or colleges. We offer extensive training, support and resources to help you to do so. For example, one Climate Ambassadors is helping their child’s primary schools and found the two-hour Climate Essentials training invaluable in developing the knowledge, understanding and confidence to work with Climate Action Plans alongside the SLT. As well as this strategic support, they have been able to signpost the school to a wide range of resources from Sustainability Support for Education. The initial registration and induction takes around an hour and includes a DBS check; the live, online Climate Essentials training is two-hours and sessions run regularly.

‘I signed up as a Climate Ambassador because I see this role as a great opportunity to put my passion and expertise in sustainability into practice in educational settings other than my place of work. I also appreciate the flexibility of the role due to working from home most of the time, meaning that I’m able to participate in several activities online rather than in-person only.’

Climate Ambassador and Environment Officer, East Midlands