Climate change competencies from perspective of Finnish youth

ABSTRACT

Climate change (CC) is causing distress and worry in today's young people, who are inheriting CC-related problems from previous generations. To equip young people with the necessary CC mitigation and adaptation skills, we need a detailed description of CC competencies. A framework of CC competencies describes sets of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes required to tackle climate change. Young people are the next generation of leaders, and it is particularly important to listen to their hopes and demands. To create a CC competency framework from the perspective of Finnish young people, we surveyed 43 young respondents using an open-ended questionnaire. All respondents were participants in a climate change summit for young people. Based on the responses, we compiled a framework of six climate change competencies: CC systems thinking, CC science orientation, CC leadership, CC justice and collaboration, CC implementation and CC well-being. The results provide insight into the qualities that were emphasized by the young people, such as urgency of action, the need for solidarity and science-based knowledge. We conclude that this framework can serve as an opening for a discussion on climate change competencies, which can eventually be utilized as a basis for learning outcomes in CC education.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• young people's perspective
• climate change education
• climate change competencies

Acknowledgements

We would like to express special thanks to all the young people who participated in this study. Thanks are also due to Mikko Äijälä for his participation in the analysis phase, his guidance, and for discussions related to this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the ClimComp research project funded by the Academy of Finland Science Finland 2021–2024, decision number 340791.