Children in a changing climate

overview

This theme explores how children and young people’s knowledge of climate change differs from older generations, what causes these differences and the implications this has for autonomous or externally led climate adaptation strategies.

key questions

It has been hypothesised that, on balance, children know more about the climate change issue than their parents or grandparents, because climate change is being taught in school and because children are accessing environmental and other media through electronic communication sources more regularly than their elders are.

During ccc-research fieldwork into Voice and Participation, conducted in the Philippines and El Salvador in 2007, researchers found that children were keen to discuss climate change, stimulated by what they were learning in schools and what the media was saying about the causes of the most recent disasters.

This research asks: 

• What information are children accessing on climate change and how is does this inform and influence their actions?

• To what extent are messages around the social dimensions of climate change being included in mainstream information being accessed by children?

• What do children know about climate change impacts and how do they perceive it vis a vis their their futures?

programme linkages

Understanding children's perceptions and knowledge of climate change across different geographical regions can help CCC identify gaps in information and how to make information accessible to children in a way that inspires them rather than being daunting. Research in this area is very closely tied to ccc-learning and will also support child-led adaptation strategy development under ccc-action.