(CNN)From next year, Italian school students in every grade will be required to study climate change and sustainability, in an attempt to position the country as a world leader in environmental education.
Education Minister Lorenzo Fioramonti, of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, said all public schools will include about 33 hours a year in their curricula to study issues linked to climate change.
Photos: The Extinction Rebellion protests
Photos: The Extinction Rebellion protests
Extinction Rebellion climate change protesters demonstrate during a rally in Trafalgar Square in London on Wednesday, October 16. Climate protesters in London have kept up their campaign despite being ousted by a police order from their Trafalgar Square encampment on Monday.
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Climate activists hold a banner after climbing atop the roof of the entrance to YouTube's offices in London during the 10th day of demonstrations on October 16.
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The Guardian newspaper environmental journalist and author George Monbiot, right, sits blocking a road with the Co-Leader of Britain's Green Party Jonathan Bartley at the bottom of Trafalgar Square on October 16.
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An Extinction Rebellion climate protester sits atop a fence pillar on the perimeter of the houses of parliament in London, on Tuesday October 15.
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Protesters demonstrate outside the BlackRock headquarters in Throgmorton Avenue in London on Monday, October 14.
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A protester stands near a policeman during a demonstration in London.
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A young child waves an Extinction Rebellion flag outside of the Bank of England during the eighth day of demonstrations October 14.
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Doctors join Extinction Rebellion activists to demonstrate for the sixth day running in Trafalgar Square on October 12.
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Protesters block a road during an Extinction Rebellion protest on Saturday, October 12, in Prague, Czech Republic.
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Oisin O'Connor and his sister, Eve, help wallpaper the front of the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment in Dublin, Ireland, on Friday, October 11.
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Activists bury their heads in the sand on Sydney's Manly Beach on October 11.
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Protesters chain themselves to barrels on Berlin's Marschall Bridge.
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Police block the entrance to the BBC New Broadcasting House in London during an Extinction Rebellion protest on October 11.
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Climate activists participate in an Extinction Rebellion protest in New York's Times Square on Thursday, October 10.
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Extinction Rebellion demonstrators block an entrance to the City Airport in London on October 10.
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Extinction Rebellion protesters march as a "human forest" in Dublin. They were heading to Leinster House to call for a complete remodeling of forestry policy.
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A demonstrator displays a banner at the City Airport in London.
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Mothers gather ahead of the Extinction Rebellion "nurse-in" road blockade in London on Wednesday, October 9.
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Extinction Rebellion protesters wear masks in Berlin on October 9. From left, the masks represent German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and German Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
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Extinction Rebellion told CNN on October 9 that activists now control three sites in Berlin.
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Stanley Johnson, father of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, joins protesters in London's Trafalgar Square on October 9. Days before, his son described Extinction Rebellion protesters as "hemp-smelling," "uncooperative crusties."
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The protests often dip into the theatrical. On October 9, anti-aircraft protesters held signs in Trafalgar Square a day before a planned "'Hong Kong-style occupation" of the London City Airport.
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Activists block a bridge close to the Reichstag building in Berlin on October 9. Extinction Rebellion encourages volunteers to carry out acts of "peaceful civil disobedience to call on government to act on the climate and ecological emergency."
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Activists protest outside Dublin's Government Buildings as Ireland's finance minister unveiled the country's 2020 budget on Tuesday, October 8.
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Climate activists glue themselves to the entrance of a power company's offices in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on October 8.
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Activists stage a sit-down protest outside Dublin's Government Buildings.
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Protesters wearing black stand next to a coffin as they stage a demonstration in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate on October 8.
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A man is detained in Melbourne as he takes part in an Extinction Rebellion protest on Monday, October 7. More than 50 people were arrested throughout Australia that day.
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In New York, demonstrators congregate at Washington Square Park as they launched actions around the city on October 7. The protests included pouring fake blood over Wall Street's Charging Bull statue.
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The Red Brigade surrounds police in London on October 7. This crimson-robed troupe is common at Extinction Rebellion protests and is the creation of the Invisible Circus, a street performance group.
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A driver watches protesters block a city intersection in Melbourne on October 7.
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Extinction Rebellion flags fly at a protest in Melbourne.
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A group calling itself the Aged Agitators demonstrates outside London's Houses of Parliament.
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A woman sits down in front of a line of police in Melbourne.
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Protesters take part in Extinction Rebellion's global "Week of Action" in Melbourne.
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The lessons will be built into existing civics classes, which will have an "environmentalist footprint" from September 2020, Vincenzo Cramarossa, Fioramonti's spokesman, told CNN.
"The idea is that the citizens of the future need to be ready for the climate emergency," Cramarossa said.
In addition, sustainable development will appear in more traditional subjects, such as geography, maths and physics, Cramarossa said.
"There will be more attention to climate change when teaching those traditional subjects," he explained.
Fioramonti, an economics professor at South Africa's Pretoria University, told Reuters in an interview that the entire ministry "is being changed to make sustainability and climate the center of the education model."
"I want to make the Italian education system the first education system that puts the environment and society at the core of everything we learn in school," he said.
Cramarossa said 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 redevelop the national curriculum to pay more attention to climate change and sustainability.
"It's a world's first to have a (compulsory) national education in that sense," Cramarossa said.
The Five Star Movement, to which Fioramonti belongs, has a history of environmental concern and grassroots activism.
Since becoming minister, Fioramonti has been criticized by right-wing opposition parties for supporting striking students protesting climate change and backing taxes on plastic and sugary drinks.
