Assessing climate literacy: development and validation of the climate literacy scale with a representative Quebec sample

In recent years, various climate change education efforts have been launched, including federally (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, etc.) and privately funded projects. In addition, climate literacy and energy literacy frameworks have been developed and deployed, and both have been reviewed and endorsed by the U.S. Global Change Research Program. This paper describes a community-based effort to promote climate and energy literacy: the CLEAN Network (originally the Climate Literacy Network). We describe results from a member survey about the importance of the network to the members' professional lives and review the development and position of the network within the larger community of climate and energy literacy stakeholders. The CLEAN Network was first formed in 2008 to support climate literacy efforts, largely through voluntary efforts. It serves as a champion and rudimentary and unfunded backbone support organization, enabling first steps toward establishing the elements necessary for successful collective impact in achieving climate literacy. Among the elements that have been described to be essential for a collective impact, the CLEAN Network most effectively provides continuous communication for the broad community of climate literacy stakeholders. The network enables its professionally diverse members to learn of one another's needs and to begin identifying mutually reinforcing activities that will address the common agenda and shared system of measures (two other key elements of collective impact) once they are established. The CLEAN Network serves as a small champion group that continues to seek input from the larger climate literacy stakeholder community on how a backbone support organization might support and extend their efforts. The next steps in a collective impact approach to climate and energy literacy include defining and forming a backbone support organization to facilitate the development of a shared agenda and a shared system of measures, which has the support of all stakeholders, that is sufficiently funded and can help mobilize funding to scale what works in climate and energy literacy. Such an organization would have collective impact that is commensurate to the challenges and opportunities climate change present to the nation.

Combating climate change demands broad societal understanding and action. A key question is how effectively the private sector can enhance their employees' climate knowledge, attitudes, and actions to advance their corporate sustainability goals. Our paper presents the development and assessment results of a comprehensive, science‐based climate change education program for all employees at a large U.S. public power utility. A robust pre‐post climate literacy survey of participants included attention to variables that contributed to the program's success, which helps to fill a gap in the literature by demonstrating demographic‐dependent improvements in climate literacy. Results of the quasi‐experimental assessment demonstrate the overall effectiveness of the initiative for increasing participants' climate knowledge (+12.7%, p < 0.001) and attitudes (+6.0%, p < 0.001) ( n = 560). Baseline climate literacy varied significantly, primarily based on employees' education level, gender, and rural or urban work location. These differences contributed to variability in the program's effectiveness among cohorts, with the most substantial differences in literacy gains based on their level of education. Employees especially valued educational components that were interactive and relevant to their local communities. Our results suggest that climate change education has the potential to improve employees' climate literacy, but may be best served with multiple education strategies that would be more inclusive across employee groups.

All countries today require education that effectively addresses the challenges posed by the climate crisis. This paper examines students’ climate literacy and teachers’ perspectives on Climate Change Education (CCE). Additionally, it aims to determine the importance of CCE in school curricula. This study uses a mixed-method approach, incorporating surveys and semi-structured interviews. A total of 246 secondary school students and ten science teachers participated in this research. The findings reveal students’ strengths and gaps in climate knowledge and behavior. While they demonstrate an understanding of fundamental climate change concepts, they also exhibit a strong awareness of the role of human activities in driving it. However, despite their awareness, there is significant skepticism about the effectiveness of individual and collective actions to mitigate climate change. Proactive attitudes towards climate action, emphasising personal responsibility and community engagement, are considered crucial but are not widely adopted. Teachers’ perspectives on CCE are categorised into three key elements: preparedness and solutions, impacts and awareness, and the necessity for climate change education. The key findings’ study underscored the need to integrate climate change education into school curricula.

BackgroundClimate literacy is fundamental to addressing climate change. Science education has unique value in shaping students’ climate literacy. Given the divergence among single studies, it is essential to synthesize findings from multiple empirical investigations to comprehensively explore the impact of science education on students’ climate literacy, yet such research remains scarce.ObjectiveThis study employed a three-level meta-analysis to examine the effectiveness of school science education in fostering students’ climate literacy.MethodsWe systematically searched five databases for studies published up to May 2025, ultimately including 33 experimental and quasi-experimental studies (N = 8,044) from five continents. We conducted three-level meta-analysis of overall effects and moderation effects using the metafor package in R software.ResultsThe results indicated that school science education has a significantly positive and large effect on students’ climate literacy (g = 1.01, 95% CI [0.70, 1.33], p < 0.001, k = 60). Dimensional analyses showed significant positive effects on climate change cognition (g = 1.08, 95% CI [0.71, 1.45], p < 0.001, k = 46) and attitudes (g = 0.88, 95% CI [0.17, 1.60], p < 0.05, k = 11), with a larger effect for cognition. The effect on climate action was not statistically significant (g = 0.34, 95% CI [−0.63, 1.32], p > 0.05, k = 3). Discipline significantly moderated the effect of science education on climate literacy, whereas instructional strategy, educational level, and intervention duration did not.ConclusionOur research indicates that school science education is an effective pathway for enhancing students’ climate literacy, though the impact varies across different science disciplines. However, given the considerable heterogeneity among the included studies and the limited number of studies and effect sizes in some groups, these findings should be interpreted with caution.

This study aims to investigate climate literacy among junior high school students participating in an SSI-STEAM climate change education program and to examine the impacts of the program on the cultivation of climate literacy. Thirty-one eighth-grade students in Seoul, Korea, participated in this study. Data were collected using pre- and post-program surveys with a climate literacy questionnaire (CLQ), students’ background survey questions, interviews with participants, and from the artifacts produced by students during the program. Participants’ climate literacy was shown to improve substantially after attending the program, especially in the domains of perception and action. The four characteristics of climate literacy change were identified in the participants’ responses: more concrete ideas, extension of the scope of thinking, positive responsibility, and relevance recognition. The climate literacy program developed showed potential for fostering young people’s climate literacy along with their understanding of responsible national and global citizenship. The study discusses the implications of these findings and includes suggestions for future climate literacy program development and for both curricular and extra-curricular climate change education that can together nurture students’ more profound understanding of climate change.

Climate change has become a serious threat to all humans, with impacts already being felt throughout the planet. One effort in climate change education is to improve students' climate literacy and climate change awareness. This study aimed to measure climate literacy and climate change awareness among vocational high school students and analyze the relationship between aspects of these two variables. A questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale was used, and the data were processed using descriptive statistics and Pearson ’scorrelation analysis. The results from 295 respondents showed that the average climate literacy was in the high category (3.50), while climate change awareness was in the medium category (3.40). However, both showed significant gaps in each aspect. The results of the correlation analysis showed a significant relationship between attitudes and behavior, both in climate literacy (r = 0.323) and climate change awareness (r = 0.142). Climate change education not only conveys information in the form of knowledge but also includes efforts to strengthen attitudes that can encourage sustainable climate-friendly behavior. The results of this study will serve as the basis for developing climate change teaching materials in vocational high schools to improve students' climate literacy and climate change awareness.

This paper presents a bibliometric analysis overview of climate literacy, focusing on 740 articles published between 2001 and 2021 from the SCOPUS database. The main aim of this study was to examine related climate literacy publications. A bibliometric analysis was conducted to identify the growth trend of climate literacy research over the last twenty years (2001 to 2021), in addition to collaborations between authors, institutions, and countries in related fields. Thematic and keyword analyses were carried out to identify recent and current research topics. Based on the findings, an increasing trend in the number of publications related to climate change, 740 articles in total, was found for the last twenty years (2001 to 2021). Meanwhile, Ford, J. D. was identified as the most productive author, and the United States, United Kingdom and Australia were found to be the most influential countries producing research on climate literacy. In addition, the University of Melbourne (Australia), University of Washington and Columbia University in the United States were among the top universities to have contributed to climate literacy publications. Furthermore, Weather, Climate and Society was found to be the most represented journal, ranking Q1 in SCOPUS, with the highest publications in climate literacy. Four major thematic focus areas were identified: climate change activity, climate literacy, climate event and demographic of research studies. Based on the bibliometric analysis, the authors suggest that future research on climate literacy should focus on climate literacy among young people and the relationships between climate literacy components.

What is climate literacy? How is defined? By what metrics can it be assessed? How will we know when it has been achieved? Is climate literacy a static state or a dynamic realism? These are some of the many questions that have been circulating among the climate literacy community over the last two years in such fora as the Climate Literacy Network, the AAG (Association of American Geographers) Climate Literacy Initiative, and among colleagues who have worked on the Essential Principles of Climate Literacy. This special issue stems from the need to address some of these burning questions, to highlight the widespread misconceptions about climate science in general, and to present successful strategies from which we can learn as we strive toward a climate-literate citizenry. In the quest to achieve literacy, we should first pause to quantify what is meant by this term. Is it the accumulation of content, understanding, the ability to create new knowledge, skills acquisition, transferability to a new situation or location, critical thinking, decision-making, the recognition of bias, or the change in behavior due to a deeper appreciation of an issue or concept? I would argue that literacy encompasses all of the above. Without their realizing it, so would my students. In an interesting exercise with my Climatology class, I began the semester by asking them to define climate literacy. Their responses revolved around individual atmospheric or land-surface processes and skills including weather patterns, weather map interpretation, global warming, the role of ocean currents, landscapes, continentality, and climate change. By the end of the semester, after having been exposed to the various tenets of dynamic, synoptic, descriptive, applied, and historical climatology, their responses had coalesced around the following: climate literacy as the understanding of the “interconnectedness” of patterns at varying spatial and temporal scales, the “complexity” of the interactions over these scales, the role that humans exert, and the ability to “act accordingly” having understood the above. It is important to realize that not everyone will have the benefit of having taken a climate-related class as part of their undergraduate studies. This therefore begs the question: How will climate literacy be translated to other parts of the formal education arena, and more importantly to the informal aspects of society? This question is not a trivial one, nor are its answers easy to elucidate. The first three papers in this issue are devoted to this larger question of addressing science and climate science literacy. In “The Role of Narrative and Geospatial Visualization in Fostering Climate Literate Citizens,” Niepold et al. (2008) argue for the use of a collaborative approach among U.S. Federal agencies to bring their

The role of climate literacy in individual response to climate change: evidence from China

Climate change is a serious issue that not only affects Malaysia but also worldwide. Previous studies found that climate literacy may have a significant relationship with climate response while the level of education does not affect climate literacy. Thus, this study was conducted to gauge the level of climate literacy as well as their responses for Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) students. A mobile climate application named SmaCli is proposed at the end of this study to address the issue of negative response towards climate change. The featuresof SmaCli are based on responses solicited from the questionnaire and the aim is to enhance climate literacy and encourage positive responses. However, for this paper, the prototype of the application is not included. A total of 196 responses were collected which consists of postgraduate and undergraduate students. The study found that 66% of the respondents have high literacy on climate change, level of education has no significant relationship with climate literacy level, mitigation act (climate response) showed a significant relationship with climate literacy level, and adaptation act (climate response) has no significant relationship with climate literacy. Hence, a concerted effort is still needed to improve climate literacy levels to ensure a positive climate response.

Knowing climate as a social-ecological-atmospheric construct

Mangrove planting project is one of the most beneficial conservation efforts in coastal areas in terms of environmental impact and carbon sequestration rate. We hypothesized that it would serve as an effective learning strategy if the planting project were planned and organized by the student within a structured biology course. This study examines the impact of the mangrove planting project as a climate initiative program within a biology course towards students’ climate literacy. In this study, 57 students who participated in a mangrove planting project within the Conservation of Coastal Resources course were assigned a climate change questionnaire. The change in participants’ climate literacy was measured before and after the intervention. Climate literacy is measured in three aspects i.e., climate action readiness, climate concerns, and pro-climatic attitude. The result shows that mangrove planting projects increase all measured aspects significantly, with climate action readiness showing the highest improvement. These findings confirmed the benefits of collaborative project-based learning to improve the students’ climate literacy.

A bibliometric analysis of 1337 papers from the Web of Science database published between 2000 and 2023 (January) was conducted to provide an overview of climate literacy. The study's objectives were to survey the body of literature on climate literacy, examine the connections among the authors, organizations, and nations that were active in the subject, and ascertain the rate of growth in that field during the previous 23 years. To find the current research interests, thematic and keyword analysis were done. With a total of 1337 articles published over the last three years, the data revealed a rising trend in the number of publications about climate change. The study discovered that Hong, Huang-Yao was the most prolific author and that the United States of America, China, the United Kingdom, and Australia had the greatest influence on the research produced on climate literacy. Prestigious universities contributing to climate literacy publications included the Australian National University, the University of Leeds and the University of Oxford. The journal with the most significant number of papers related to climate literacy was Sustainability, ranking first in the Web of Science. Based on the bibliometric study, the authors recommend that future research focus on climate literacy among youth and the associations between the various components of climate literacy.

Our previous research demonstrated that semester-long discussions resulted in significant increases in online students' climate literacy. When students expressed concern over the monotony of the semester-long topic, we extended our research to optimize climate change literacy with more efficient delivery. However, our second investigation revealed that 3-week units resulted in retention of nonscientific opinions. In this study, we implemented online climate change discussions in a 6-week unit. Students in online Earth history classes (N = 64) were randomly placed in discussion groups (N = 6), and assigned mandatory weekly discussions on climate change. For each weekly unit, two to three resources (e.g., graphs, scientific articles) and two multithreaded critical thinking questions were posted. For the final unit, student groups assembled a summary consensus, and completed a Climate Change Survey (N = 57) to assess content. Comparison with earlier results revealed that 2012 students' climate change knowledge and opinions closely paralleled the semester-long discussion population, although there were slight differences. However, final examination essay responses hinted that transferability issues with climate change content knowledge existed outside the discussion realm. We propose 6-week discussions are sufficient for content climate literacy, but more research is needed into the role of group summaries and transferability.

Purpose One of the crucial roles of universities is to encourage students to learn about climate change issues and put strategies into practice to enhance climate literacy. Despite the urgency of the situation, implementing climate change education in universities has not yet achieved the required success. This study aims to examine the significance of climate literacy activities and sustainability practices for students on campus to support them in transferring their knowledge into action. Design/methodology/approach This research involved a case study from the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol, in the United Kingdom, which serves to investigate inner educational transitions that efficiently embed climate literacy activities into the curricula. Data collection was designed around semi-structured qualitative interviews, including postgraduate students and staff, to develop a list of recommendations for universities to strengthen their students’ climate literacy. Findings The findings illustrate that students still face challenges translating their understanding of climate change science into action. Climate literacy should extend beyond basic knowledge about climate science to building students’ skills via activities that will support them in making sound decisions in adapting to climate change concerns and empower them to create concrete action. Originality/value This paper has identified the university’s significant role in developing a teaching and learning strategy to legitimise climate literacy activities in the curriculum and provide a resource bank of quality teaching materials to effectively deliver sustainability and climate literacy in all provisions. The paper’s recommendations are not only beneficial for universities at an institutional level but also for the individual stakeholders involved, including students and staff.