Climate change is the most serious environmental, social, and economic problem humanity is currently facing. Education is a fundamental pillar for societies in their efforts to address climate change, as stated in Article 12 of the Paris Agreement. In view of this imperative, the need to develop a Climate Change Education (CCE) plan that would be up to the challenge arose in the field of educational research. The guidelines for such a task are based on the study of four educational factors: the students, the teachers, the teaching and learning strategies and methods, and the goals of education. Research on these factors is abundant; nevertheless, there is a lack of these studies concerning Africa. Here, we present an exploratory study which focuses on students in Pemba (Mozambique) and aims to be the first step in the exploration and development of a basis for CCE in this country. We employed a questionnaire consisting of 38 closed-end items which was administered to 256 Mozambican students (aged 16–18). Findings suggest that students declared a limited knowledge about climate change, erroneous beliefs about the anthropogenic causes of climate change, and low levels of responsibility and risk perception. Further progress in the development of CCE in Mozambique would require future research to explore other educational factors with the aim of building a more accurate image of the educational reality of climate change in this country.

El cambio climático (CC) está adquiriendo un creciente protagonismo en el sistema educativo. Las representaciones sociales de la población, sin embargo, revelan un conocimiento limitado y distorsionado de los aspectos que lo caracterizan y, por lo tanto, están lejos de traducirse en procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje acordes con la gravedad de la crisis socioambiental. Esto sucede también entre el alumnado de educación secundaria, como se evidencia en este estudio. Las respuestas obtenidas en un cuestionario ad hoc (n = 607) sobre conocimientos y valoraciones sobre el CC sugieren, de hecho, tendencias contradictorias en lo que se refiere al conocimiento de sus causas y efectos. Del análisis de los resultados se infiere y justifica la necesidad de promover cambios en los modos de educar a las generaciones más jóvenes sobre el alcance y la relevancia del CC en nuestras sociedades.

Climate Change is the most important threat to our society and all species on Earth. Large alterations in the climate are affecting every aspect of our society and in order to limit this impact we must decarbonize the economy before 2050. Although science presents solid evidence on the magnitude of the problem and outlines precisely the consequences, people do not act accordingly and do not consider this issue a priority for their survival. The reason behind this paradox might be a non-appropriate Social Representation of Climate Change in society as the Social Representation conditions and forms the response of the society. In this paper, we extend previous investigations of how this Social Representation is formed in order to find ways to improve it through a Massive Online Open Course on the Science of Climate Change. Using a validated questionnaire, we investigated the knowledge dimension of the Social Representation of Climate Change in a group of students of a MOOC on Climate Change. A pre- and posttest revealed general improvements in all the categories that were considered in this study. A detailed analysis showed different degrees of improvement for different groups, providing new insights in the efficiency of knowledge-based online courses. Well designed Massive Online Open Courses, based on scientific evidence, targeted to the general public might improve the Social Representation of Climate Change, which may in turn trigger awareness and an effective mobilization to address this important and urgent topic.

Since January 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the media and exercises pressure on governments worldwide. Apart from its effects on economies, education systems and societies, the pandemic has also influenced climate change research. This paper examines the extent to which COVID-19 has influenced climate change research worldwide during the first wave at the beginning of 2020 and how it is perceived to exploit it in the future. This study utilised an international survey involving those dedicated to climate change science and management research from Academia, Government, NGOs, and international agencies in 83 countries. The analysis of responses encompasses four independent variables: Institutions, Regions, Scientific Areas, and the level of economic development represented by the Human Development Index (HDI). Results show that: (1) COVID-19 modified the way the surveyed researchers work, (2) there are indicators that COVID-19 has already influenced the direction of climate change and adaptation policy implementation, and (3) respondents perceived (explicitly concerning the COVID-19 lockdowns of March-April 2020), that the pandemic has drawn attention away from climate policy. COVID- 19 has influenced the agenda of climate change research for more than half of the respondents and is likely to continue in the future, suggesting that the impacts on their research will still be felt for many years. The paper concludes by outlining critical implications for policy-making.

The purpose of this study is to assess climate change knowledge among high school students and their beliefs and perceptions about the climate crisis. A questionnaire composed of 43 closed-ended questions was applied to 219 students aged 15–18 in three schools located in the north of Portugal. The results show that participants declared having limited knowledge about the issue. Similarly, the research confirms the conclusions of other studies that identified generalized alternative representations of climate change. Our findings aim to offer data geared toward supporting and promoting a new way of conceptualizing and understanding climate change education (CCE) in formal education contexts in the Portuguese education system.

This study is focused on perceptions regarding meat consumption, targeting university students. This is a timely topic in a context of climate change (CC), sustainability in agri-food systems and in universities. Recently, some universities adopted food-related CC mitigation measures, by removing some types of meat from their canteens. This research intended to find trends, at a Portuguese university, on consumption habits and on willingness to reduce meat. The methodology follows a quantitative and descriptive approach. The universe is the students’ community from the University of Aveiro, with a random sample of 876 valid questionnaires. Although results show that meat is a substantial part of students’ diet, most of them are willing to reduce this product, and mainly for environmental reasons. Undergraduate students have higher level of awareness in this matter, namely from Natural Sciences. Female students are more receptive to diet changes. Further studies and educational actions on Diet-CC should be promoted in all levels of Academy, especially in PhD, Social Sciences and with gender differentiation. Such results may support an effectively participatory discussion to better decide on decarbonization of the Campus through the diet.