August 11, 2026 
3 min read 
When CAPS Unlock brought the Turn It Around! Climate Cards project to Central Asia, we knew we would hear from passionate young people. We didn’t anticipate the sheer scale and coherence of their message.
What happens when you ask over 1,000 young people across Central Asia what they think about climate change – and what they need from their education?
Over 1,000 young people from across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – from more than 150 locations – have spoken. Through artworks and written reflections, they have delivered an unmistakable call to action. Young people in Central Asia are not asking for abstract promises, they want meaningful change in their education systems.
Here is the link to the final selection and Turn It Around Climate Card Deck
The messages in the submissions and presented in the final selection of cards is remarkably consistent. Young people see climate, water, food, forests, pollution and health as part of one interconnected system. They view themselves not as passive observers but as moral agents – caretakers, defenders and innovators. And they are calling for education that prepares them to understand, participate in and help regenerate their communities.
These are not abstract wishes. They are lived experiences of environmental stress, expressed with clarity, imagination and moral urgency.
These ideas are now gathered in a new report: The Central Asia Climate Cards Deck Policy Discussion Document. Drawing on one of the most extensive youth climate datasets ever collected in the region, the report presents a compelling case for transforming climate and ecology education across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
This report is written as a discussion document for all partners and groups interested in climate change education – governments, civil society, donors, youth networks and educators. It sets out the regional context of what is increasingly recognised as a Polycrisis affecting water, food, energy and ecosystems across Central Asia. It describes climate education options adopted by countries internationally, offering a menu of practical pathways that can be adapted and sequenced according to national circumstances. And crucially, it opens the discussion about what young people in the region believe should be urgent priorities for education policy.
The report outlines six strategic pillars for systemic transformation and proposes four international models that Central Asian countries can draw upon as they develop their own approaches. These range from subject-anchored reforms – providing a fast-start pathway already underway with UNICEF support – to whole-school integration, green-skills pathways and community-based learning modalities.
Young people across Central Asia have done their part – with imagination, courage and clarity. Now it is time for education systems to respond.
Peter Frankopan speaks to CAPS Unlock about integrating climate change into the curriculum.
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