A Call for Greater Collaborative Role From Psychology in Climate Change Education Interventions Focused on Children/Youth

The worldwide climate crisis is a multifaceted crisis that requires international and interdisciplinary partnerships and collaboration (Sustainable Development Goal [SDG] 17). Climate change education (CCE) plays an important role in the climate emergency, which involves not only the physical changes brought on by climate change but also the psychological ones. This article considered the role of psychology in interdisciplinary collaborations to address CCE at the intersection of SDG4 (education) and SDG13 (climate action) by conducting auxiliary analyses of 122 articles from a systematic review of CCE interventions assessing the impact on children and youth only (Bottin et al., 2023). The main finding was that only 20 articles (16.4%) included a psychology-affiliated author, indicating the low representation of psychology as a collaborating partner. One article was published in 1998, and the remaining 19 were published between 2012 and 2023 (same time period as the rest of the 102 articles). Psychology-affiliated authors collaborated interdisciplinarily in 11 (21%) of the 20 articles and internationally in three (15%) of the 20 articles. Most interventions focused on mitigation (n = 18) and aimed at changing cognitions (n = 18). We describe three broad areas of contributions (content, method, measures) from psychology for future CCE interventions. We offer recommendations for greater involvement of psychologists in CCE at the global, national, and local levels.