International Survey of Climate Change Communication and Education Organizations

• In Event: Comparative and Cross-National Perspectives on Climate Change Education

Proposal

Climate change communication and education (CCE) is a movement that seeks to unlock the potential of education and communication to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change. Broadly defined, in the context of this movement, education includes formal (K-16), nonformal, and informal education, as well as training, public awareness, public access to information, and public participation (see UNFCCC, 2021). Like many other movements, the CCE movement consists of multiple organizations and groups working at different scales – community, municipal, national, regional and international. Prior to this study, little was known about how organizations and groups carry out CCE in different countries and regions of the world. This research project was undertaken to help fill these knowledge gaps.
In order to understand and track dynamics of the CCE movement, we conducted an International Dataset and Directory of Institutions Active in the Field of Climate Communication and Education. The overarching aim of the study is to identify and map the organizations across countries, highlight the expanse of their networks, and document their activities. To do so, the study used two complementary approaches: an international census and survey of climate communication and education organizations (hereafter referred to as CCEOs). The study accomplished this by: (a) estimating the number, size, and geographical location of CCEOs and (b) documenting the CCE services and programs these organizations provide. Specifically, this project addresses the following questions:
How many CCEOs are there? In which regions or geographical locations are they to be found? Are they state-specific, national-, or trans-national entities?
What do CCEOs do? What kinds of CCE activities do they facilitate and what services do they offer?
To what extent do CCEO activities and services vary across different social, political, economic, and ecological contexts?
What are the strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and needs of CCEOs?
An online census was conducted to identify organizations that provide climate change communication and education (CCEOs) operating in each country. A research team searched for CCEOs using a structured search protocol across different search engines, social media, and listed network directories by local or national organizations. Information on the CCEOs was compiled into a directory based on a structured protocol. Overall, we found 5,596 CCEOs across 250 countries.
Using the contact information from the census directory, we disseminated a survey to collect additional information on activities which the census alone could not provide. Specifically, the survey collected information from CCEOs about 1) the organization itself (e.g., location, age, size, target populations, structure, networks, contact information) and 2) the organization’s CCE-related services and programs. Although recruitment of responses are ongoing, to date, we have received over 900 responses.
Preliminary findings indicate that a majority of CCEOs are young, with over half of organizations being established in the last two decades. The majority of CCEOs are non-govermental organizations and are typically highly formalized. Almost three-fourths of the organizations (74%) are members of networks that work to advance CCE. A majority report working in nonformal education and three-fifths engage in formal education (60%).

Author

• Erika L Kessler, American Institutes for Research