Should we make polluters pay?

The theme:
This lesson asks a simple question: should we make polluters pay? In exploring this global citizenship question, students will encounter a wealth of cross-curricular learning experiences and outcomes with learning for sustainability at the heart.
Teachers can curate a lesson by choosing from 24 activities covering numeracy, literacy, speaking and listening, creative expression, science, geography, critical thinking, mapped onto the curricula of England and Scotland and Wales.
Learners will encounter concepts including the polluter pays principle established at the Rio Earth Summit in 1990 and the loss and damage fund established at COP27, and use images and data to understand how these ideas apply around the world.

Structure:
The activites are structured in four sections:

1. Introductory stimulus | by encountering the Make Polluters Pay exhibition and forming personal responses, students begin to consider the themes of the lesson.
2. Teacher explanation | a series of explanatory activities helps students formulate enquiries and understand the background issues such as climate change, loss and damage and the “polluter pays” principle.
3. Developing understanding | a menu of activities help learners consolidate and deepen their understanding of the difference in responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions, evaluating who should pay.
4. Conclusion and expression | students use their own judgement and creativity to express their views on a fair way to help people facing loss and damage.

Why teach this lesson?
In 2022, governments across the world agreed to establish a loss and damage fund to compensate those on the frontlines of the climate crisis. The term “loss and damage” describes the irreversible harm climate change is causing to people and communities. To this day the loss and damage fund remains significantly underfunded; this is why campaigners are on the streets chanting “make polluters pay”.
Campaigners are calling for the fund to be filled with money from those that caused the climate crisis. Based on the “polluter pays principle”, the idea is to tax polluting companies, utilise this revenue to fill the fund and help those facing climate catastrophe.
These lesson materials are based on an exhibition that has toured the UK and has helped people understand and engage with the issue of loss and damage. This exhibition uses examples from around the world to illustrate communities facing painful loss and damage alongside exemplifying voices that have inspired hope and lead to positive change in the face of the climate crisis.
This lesson will enable cross-curricular learning of sustainability , unpacking the polluter pays principle which signifies an opportunity of hope and justice during difficult and uncertain times, discussing and evaluating the polluter pays principle can provide a starting point in helping to tackle climate anxiety among students.