A NORTH-EAST schoolteacher is one of only 650 people in the world to be accredited as an official United Nations Climate Change Teacher.

Josh Alexander, who teaches geography and games at Yarm School, received his accreditation following completion of the programme organised by the One UN Climate Change Learning Partnership (UN CC:Learn).

The programme aims to support knowledge sharing, promote the development of common climate change learning materials and coordinate learning interventions, and it strives to impact every school around the world.

Students in Year 11 and sixth formers will be introduced to subjects including carbon capture technologies, climate change mitigation, the work of the UN around climate change and the implications of industrialisation on the climate.

Mr Alexander plans to introduce a ‘climate change’ unit to lower school pupils supported by the resources provided by UN CC:Learn and the material will be used by the lunchtime geography club.

Yarm School has already demonstrated its green credentials when it was recently awarded its fourth consecutive Eco-Schools Green Flag Award.

Mr Alexander said: “I’m thrilled to be one of the first 650 teachers in the world to earn this accreditation. It involved a range of modules from children and climate change and cities and climate change, to gender and environment, human health and international legal regime.

“The course furthered my understanding of the whole subject of climate change and gave me ideas on how to integrate it into my teaching. It will certainly support Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) projects I supervise, such as one on the topic of sustainable architecture I recently supervised.

“I can’t wait to pass on everything I learned to the pupils at Yarm School, and to inspire everyone to be more conscious about climate change.”

Dr Huw Williams, headmaster at Yarm School, said: “We’re looking forward to seeing Mr Alexander share this knowledge with pupils through engaging activities around the causes and effects of climate change, mitigation steps and possible adaptation strategies to tackle it.

“Recent extreme weather events that have been attributed to climate change, including the devastating fires in Australia, alongside the news that the recent decade is the warmest on record, reinforce the importance of engaging our pupils and students with these issues and encouraging them to make changes in their lives that can make a big difference to the environment.”.