Teaching materials on global climate responsibility for secondary levels I and II

Interestingly, those regions of the world that are particularly hard hit by the effects of climate change have themselves contributed the least. So is it not also the responsibility of those responsible to ensure that the consequences of the climate crisis are contained?

Worksheets and background text

Our teaching materials consist of a comprehensive introductory text, worksheets with tasks and questions, a role model showing options of agency and a project example from Africa. Thanks to the modules, teachers can easily plan lessons regarding the topics.

The modules can be used in various situations. Since they contain further information and links, they help students to research more on the specific topic independently.

Recommended subjects:

• English
• Social and political sciences
• Geography
• Natural sciences

But all teaching materials can be used interdisciplinary, too.

Introductory text (excerpt from the module)

Finding out who is responsible

From an early age, we become familiar with questions like, “Who did that?” or “Who broke that?” Parents and teachers want honest answers, but they’re often met with evasive responses. Silence, lies, distraction – there are many ways to avoid uncomfortable topics. Accepting responsibility, however, is hard.

What’s difficult on a small scale is no easier in a larger context: Who is destroying our planet? Who bears responsibility for climate change and its consequences? As we seek climate justice, these questions are the subject of heated discussions.¹ Climate politics sometimes seems like playground petulance; among the preferred strategies for avoiding climate commitments are denial, evasion, and excuses.

What we know about climate change

It’s not because of a lack of knowledge that too little has been done over the past decades to avoid a climate collapse. Ever since the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992, it has been agreed that all parties must “protect the climate system for the benefit of present and future generations of humankind.” In 2015, the Paris Agreement determined that a global temperature increase was to be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius, greenhouse gas emissions had to be reduced to net zero by 2050, and the industrialized countries, as the main drivers of climate change, needed to pay for damages and losses in the Global South.3

There is plenty of evidence for alarming changes in the climate. Millions of climate activists from all over the world, institutions and scientists, reports and studies have warned us about a further increase in greenhouse gas emissions, the extraction of fossil fuels, and the loss of biodiversity and forests. Existing inequalities and injustices are worsening. Although Africa and other parts of the Global South contribute little to global warming, those are the regions that are hit hardest by its consequences in the form of droughts, crop losses, and flooding…

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