Conference Agenda

This contribution proposes to present the preliminary observations from the ongoing Marie Curie project KidsOnClimate, which looks at the impact of the emotions generated by learning about the climate crisis in the context of other political crises, on the way tweens and teens feel about politics more broadly. Drawing on qualitative data from France and Belgium, it therefore discusses how such learning experiences, most particularly in the school context through environment or sustainability education, feed into their attitudes towards democracy, and political representation. It particularly looks at how classroom and school contexts, most notably agency, classroom climate and feelings of being listened to might be linked to both/either political engagement and disengagement, self-efficacy or alienation. Through the analysis of empirical interviews with young people it looks at the relationship between responses to the climate crisis and other perceived crises – most notably the rise of the far right, masculinism, and war.

Drawing on literature in social psychology, political sociology, and environmental education, it explores the relationship between the way young people learn about and discuss the climate crisis and the feelings that arise from that learning, and attitudes towards perceived government and political responses to those events. It suggests that the “eco-emotions” frequently documented among young people can usefully be understood from the perspective of political sociology as a collective response to this crisis as well as an individual one, and that we need to see beyond the binary classifications of flight or fight, action or inaction.

This study particularly explores the idea of “climate fatigue” (Lachance 2025), expressed by some of the young participants, who remain concerned about the climate crisis in principle, but in practice express feelings of “saturation.” This is linked to Kari Norgaard’s understanding of “denial” (Stevenson et al. 2014; Walshe et al. 2024; Brownlee et al. 2013), as a collective phenomenon that involves learnt selective attention. Here we suggest that this is more than just distancing as a coping mechanism for distress (Ojala 2012; 2015 Léger-Goodes et al. 2025), but is linked to the way in which the climate crisis is presented to these young people through the school system (Walshe et al. 2024; Brownlee et al. 2013; Stevenson et al. 2014). Rather than considering this a purely individual psychological response, the participants themselves link these emotions to their lived experiences of how climate education is taught at school in France and Belgium.

This study bridges several existing divisions in the literature, in particular due to its focus on younger teens and tweens, exploring the evolutions that may occur in understandings of politics and democracy more broadly, as individuals move out of late childhood and into adolescence (Bessant 2004; Wunderlich 2025; Kessler 2021). As a result, this contribution will explore how learning in one area (climate change education) can impact the development of feelings and attitudes in a broader area (attitudes towards democracy and participation), through notions of political efficacy and democratic relationships (Gniewosz et al. 2009; Innocenti et al. 2023).

This research focuses particularly on the notion of “ordinary youth”, who are neither activist nor apathetic, as a population that is often not visible in the literature, and thus seeks to overcome the vision of young people as either engaged or disengaged, enthused or disillusioned (Harris et al. 2010). More particularly, it asks how opportunities for the development of political competence arise in different school contexts, and the impact of the objective reality of different school systems and structures and how these factors may impact the influences – positive or negative – of climate education on young people.

The need for a more sustainable world is increasingly urgent, with the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss being undeniable. Yet these issues are often denied (Bliuc et al., 2015) or downplayed, despite widespread support for climate action (Andre et al., 2024). Consequently, climate activists advocate for measures across various levels to promote sustainability. Data reflect a significant increase in climate protests since 2019 across different regions, highlighting growing public concern about environmental degradation, resource scarcity, and policy inertia. Recognizing protesters’ aims underscores the importance of fostering awareness, activism, and political literacy as part of sustainability education.

The MECCE Project, a six-year partnership funded by the Canadian government, aims to enhance global climate communication and education (CCE). Involving over 100 scholars and agencies—including UNESCO and UNFCCC—it develops a set of indicators (see https://mecce.ca/data-platform/) to monitor progress across six UNFCCC-defined CCE components (UNFCCC, 2021). One key component is Public Participation (UNFCCC, 2016). Youth-led climate protests and direct actions serve as important measures of public participation. Accordingly, the MECCE project has collaborated with partners to review strategies for measuring the nature and extent of (youth) activists’ involvement in climate actions worldwide.

In this presentation, we discuss the challenges of measuring (youth) participation in climate protests and share results derived from exploiting a novel protest database. Specifically, we aim to address the following research questions:
RQ1: What global data sources are available to empirically measure the extent of climate strikes and protests, and how can these be used for ongoing monitoring?
RQ2: How do country characteristics (e.g., income levels, political context) relate to the manifestation and data availability of climate protests?
RQ3: What does youth involvement in climate protests reveal about the participants’ climate literacy?

Climate change refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean and/or variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer. Climate change may result from natural internal processes or external forcings, such as solar variations, volcanic eruptions, or persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or land use (IPCC, 2014). Climate change is our current reality, and from a scientific perspective, its main cause is understood to be the use, transformation, and market-driven policies related to fossil fuels, which have led to a sustained increase in greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. This situation is further exacerbated by deforestation and land-use change, which reduce ecosystems’ capacity to absorb carbon and disrupt natural water cycles and biodiversity. Current unsustainable production and consumption models, together with intensive agro-industrial systems and a high dependence on non-renewable energy sources, reinforce these pressures on the climate system.

In this context, climate change problems of anthropogenic origin are urgent and require transformations across all levels and fields of knowledge. In particular, education, as a strategy for building capacities across generations, should also be mobilized through relevant educational offerings in which environmental issues—and especially those related to climate change—are explicitly addressed, as highlighted by multiple authors (Monroe et al., 2017; Westphal, 2025; Guimerà-Ballesta, 2025).

From this perspective, climate education implies significant transformations in traditional teaching and learning processes. It requires moving beyond disciplinary boundaries, promoting active, participatory, and dialogical strategies, while maintaining a strong commitment to scientific rigor. At the same time, climate education should foster affective and emotional attitudes, political awareness, and a holistic worldview that acknowledges the complexity of climate-related phenomena (Lopera-Pérez et al., 2019; Bottin et al., 2023; Herrera-Lopez et al., 2026). In particular, climate education must be adaptive to intersectionalities, especially in the Global South, where women, boys and girls, Afro-descendant and Indigenous communities, and people living in poverty are disproportionately more vulnerable, as evidenced by governmental reports and empirical research (Kwauk & Casey, 2022; Lagi et al., 2023).

A systematic literature review in climate education is a potentially creative process that provides relevant information for decision-making. It offers an opportunity to generate knowledge and data-informed theory in an emerging field that is of critical importance for addressing the polycrisis caused by climate change. Accordingly, a literature review process (Fink, 2019) was designed, adapting the PRISMA guidelines (2020).

Therefore, this research addresses the following question: What perspectives, approaches, trends, and research findings in climate education focused on women and girls can be identified in the literature? To answer this question, the following research objectives are proposed: (I) to identify the perspectives and approaches related to climate education present in the literature focusing on women and girls; (II) to characterize trends, strategies, and pedagogical approaches in climate education; and (III) to compare research findings in climate education across different population groups, with particular attention to girls and younth women.