Starting next school year, students across every grade in Italy will be required to study climate change and sustainability, as the country seeks to position itself as a world leader in environmental education.

Education Minister Lorenzo Fioramonti, of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, said all public schools will cover issues that examine the origin, effects and longterm impact of climate change.

Curricula will also include topics like: ocean pollution, sustainable living and renewable resources, abc.com reports.

“The idea is that the citizens of the future need to be ready for the climate emergency,” spokesman Vincenzo Cramarossa told CNN.

Sustainable development will appear in more traditional subjects, like geography, math and physics, Cramarossa added.

A panel of scientific experts, including Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of Columbia University’s Center for Sustainable Development, and American economic and social theorist Jeremy Rifkin, will help the ministry develop the lesson plans.