Background: The increasing frequency of extreme weather events across the globe, the intensifying international debates about the political urgency to mitigate climate change, as well as the respective more action demanding social movements have caused a significant increase in climate change awareness among the population. Little research, however, has systematically analyzed the behavioral impact of this development. Using Germany as a case study, we therefore scrutinize whether the recent increase in climate change awareness triggered mainly changes in public perceptions concerning environmental and sustainability issues or whether it has led to sustainable behavioral shifts. Based on previous research, we considered two routes through which an increase in climate change awareness can instigate changes: (a) directly by leading to behavioral changes towards more sustainable consumption decisions, or (b) indirectly by exerting pressure on the political process. Results: The analyzed data in the three consumption sectors of mobility, food consumption and housing confirm the continuing prevalence of an attitude–behavior gap: although there is a broad, strongly positive attitude towards climate protection and increasingly high problem awareness of climate change, so far this attitude does not immediately translate into notable behavioral changes. With regard to effects on political agenda setting, however, the effects are much more immediate. The results confirm strong pressure on the political process mainly through shifts in voter behavior. Conclusions: The results show that the increase in climate change awareness has spurred dynamics in the debate around climate change both among the population and in the political realm. Fueled by the intense media coverage of the Fridays For Future movement and related activities, a snowball effect has been set off, opening a window of opportunity for significant shifts towards more effective and rigorous climate policies. Politicians and decision-makers now have the opportunity to implement sustainability measures with strong support of the population, even if these imply higher costs. Whether there will be further shifts in the current lifestyle towards a more sustainable one, lifestyle changes should be carefully monitored in the coming years, as relevant data are only now becoming available.

The notion of a water–energy–food (WEF) nexus was introduced to encourage a more holistic perspective on the sustainable development of natural resources. Most attention has been directed at identifying potential synergies and trade-offs among sectors that could be addressed with improved technologies and management. The governance of the WEF nexus more broadly has received comparatively little attention, and the importance of scale in space and time has been largely ignored. Inspired by scholarship on multi-level governance in individual sectors, this paper identifies four scale-related governance challenges in the WEF nexus, namely: (1)scalar fit, which arises when planning and operating procedures work at different levels along the scales of space and time in different sectors; (2)scalar strategies, wherever the levels at which actors have influence and in which action takes place are contested and negotiated; (3)institutional interplay, where rules and norms in different sectors influence each other at different levels; (4)scalar uncertainty, arising out of the complexity of multi-level and multi-scale interactions. The relevance of these four challenges is illustrated with case studies from developed and developing countries. These examples show the importance of considering multiple levels and scales when assessing the likely effectiveness of WEF nexus governance mechanisms or proposals. The cases underline the need to pay close attention to issues of power, contestation, and negotiation, in addition to the analysis of institutional design. Thus, this paper recommends that nexus governance efforts and proposals be scrutinized for scale assumptions. The four identified challenges offer a suitable starting point for diagnosis.