In order to achieve a sustainable society, a citizen must be supported in overcoming any important gaps or challenges. Preparing people for Environmental Citizenship and Education for Sustainability shows coincidences in some dimensions and differences in others. However, within its definition, Environmental Citizenship has a strong emphasis on the environmental dimension of sustainability and on civic engagement in the private, social and political sphere. Environmental Citizens are able to exercise their environmental rights and duties, are able to identify the underlying structural causes of environmental degradation and environmental problems and have the willingness and the competences to address critical and active engagements. They act individually and collectively within democratic means, and consider inter- and intra-generational justice. Education for Environmental Citizenship is relevant because it can strengthen the achievement of sustainability goals through a more active civic participation. Education for Environmental Citizenship needs to develop the dispositions, skills and competencies that will enable students to reach this level of environmental awareness with wider spatial and temporal scopes, using specific educational approaches and methodologies that promote these qualities in individuals. Robust Education for Environmental Citizenship to enhance governance skills can contribute to the effective safeguarding of the environment as a holistic entity that encompasses natural, societal and economic dimensions.

This chapter examines the relationship between knowledge and Environmental Citizenship. Knowledge has been attributed to have an essential role in influencing pro-environmental behaviour and as such in the development of Environmental Citizenship. We argue that the ‘right’ kind of environmental knowledge is a necessary precondition for pro-environmental behaviour and thus for Environmental Citizenship. In this chapter, we focus on knowledge, but we also emphasise that efforts on fostering knowledge alone in education for Environmental Citizenship, without links to real life, competencies and values, are insufficient for the sake of a sustainable world. We explore which knowledge is needed in order to cultivate the coherent and adequate skills, values, attitudes and competences that we think an Environmental Citizen should have. We identify three different types of knowledge: (i) environmental systems knowledge, (ii) action-related knowledge and (iii) effectiveness knowledge. Finally, we suggest a process of co-production of new knowledge between experts and key citizens as central to the idea of a participatory approach towards developing Environmental Citizenship.

We describe the results of the Italian piloting of Change the Story, a cross-European project that takes an innovative look at climate and citizenship education. The project developed resources to support teachers and pupils in creating digital narratives about the kind of world they want as a response to the climate crisis, with the aim of both improving scientific enquiry and developing citizenship competences to actively contribute to building a climate-neutral society.