Editorial

Abstract

Climate change education is at the intersection of power, policy, and pedagogy in a world increasingly defined by intensifying crises (Stevenson et al., 2017). Although climate change is a global phenomenon with widespread impacts, its effects are more pronounced in low-income countries (Gates, 2021), where poverty and limited adaptive capacity exacerbate vulnerability to climate-related risks (Ngcamu, 2023). In recent years, the world has experienced a rise in extreme weather occurrences, including storms, floods, heatwaves, and droughts, which have transformed livelihoods, communities, and learning environments (Nhamo & Chikodzi, 2021). In light of this, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2021) employed the phrase “code red for humanity” to draw attention to the urgency of the climate crisis and to indicate that humanity is already living with the consequences of climate change. These realities require that climate change education transcends a dominant focus on abstract scientific knowledge about climate change, to confront questions of justice, equity, and sustainability (Lotz-Sisitka et al., 2021; Trott et al., 2023). The issues examined in the articles in this Special Issue, underscore a critical insight that climate change is not an abstract concept only, but is also a lived reality that profoundly influences the everyday experiences of individuals and communities across the globe. Moreover, nearly all the articles appear to reinforce the framing of climate change as a predominantly anthropogenic1 phenomenon linked to the intensification of global warming, while also recognising it as a political, social concern that requires attention to social and educational transformations. According to the IPCC (2021), rising global temperatures disrupt the balance of the Earth’s climate system, causing shifts in atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns, changing precipitation regimes, and increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. In its Summary for Policymakers, the IPCC (2021) aptly observes that “climate change is already affecting every inhabited region across the globe, with human influence contributing to many observed changes in weather and climate extremes” (p. 10).