The article highlights the urgency of the problem of formation and development of emotional intelligence of teachers and students, which solution is related with present-day modernization of geographical education. The authors analyzed the concept of "emotional intelligence" and characterized the transformation of this concept. Based on the study of psychological and pedagogical literature, the authors identified the main elements of emotional intelligence – self-knowledge, self-regulation, empathy and motivation. They proved the need to develop emotional intelligence in geography teachers as a necessary condition under which teachers can form it in students. The paper points out the peculiarities of the formation of subject geographical competence of students "emotional and value attitude to the environment and human activity in it", which is closely related to the formation and development of their emotional intelligence in the process of learning geography. The article analyzes the conditions for the development of emotional intelligence in adolescence, highlights the characteristic of this age emotional properties. The authors substantiate the specific possibilities of developing the emotional intelligence of students in geography lessons through the use of teaching methods, which are a set of emotional and sensory influences on the student's personality in the process of organizing his educational and cognitive activities. Here the methodical methods of formation of emotional intelligence developed by authors are presented, their content and procedure of realization found out, conditions of their application in the course of training of geography are characterized.