Abstract. The physics classroom provides an excellent opportunity for students to comprehend global sustainability issues and simultaneously be empowered by their science learning. Drawing on data from a large national survey study of college students about their high school science experiences, we compare how frequently sustainability topics (e.g. energy supply, energy demand, climate change, water supply) are covered in high school physics versus other science courses. Furthermore, employing science agency and physics identity theoretical perspectives, we examine whether the inclusion of sustainability topics has an effect on student science agency beliefs or their physics identities while controlling for demographics and other background variables. Our results indicate that physics courses are reported to cover sustainability topics less frequently than other science courses. In addition, the inclusion of certain topics (e.g. energy supply) has significant effect on student science agency beliefs and physics identity.