Higher education institutions possess a crucial function in equipping students and graduates with the competencies necessary to address environmental challenges such as climate change, thereby facilitating the advancement of sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to investigate the barriers to teaching climate change in Iran’s universities. Iran is the focus of this study because, with 2569 higher education institutions, it is one of the top 10 countries globally for the highest number of higher education institutions. This study has been conducted through a qualitative method (Classical Grand Theory). Open, selective, and theoretical coding have employed in this study. Findings show that the most significant barriers to teaching climate change are in four categories: lack of complementary training courses, interorganizational factors, extraorganizational factors, and lack of effective curriculum. Lincoln and Cuba’s methods, including credibility, dependability, conformability, and transferability, were used to substantiate the data’s validity and reliability. The results indicate that the barriers identified in this survey must be addressed to advance climate change education in Iran’s universities.