Beginning in September 2020, students in all levels of Italian public schools will study climate-change-related materials for 33 hours during the school year, or about one hour a week. Many teachers already address such topics, but the study of those topics will be a requirement, Education Minister Lorenzo Fioramonti announced.

In addition, the Ministry said, teachers of other subjects–such as geography, mathematics, and physics–will be asked to include sustainable development ideas where possible.

Fioramonti, a former professor of economics at Pretoria University in South Africa, said that he would enlist a host of world experts to help design the curriculum for the climate-change-related instruction and that teacher training would begin in January 2020.