New in PNAS: Evidence on education policy and support for climate action

[BRADLEY, Max]

Dear colleagues,

We thought this group might be interested in a new open-access paper that we just published in PNAS:

Educational policies can strengthen climate coalitions

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2533821123

The paper examines a question that is relevant to many of us who research and teach environmental politics: can climate education influence support for ambitious climate policy?

We studied the effects of the “2tonnes” workshop, a three-hour interactive climate education programme that has been implemented in more than 500 French universities. In a cluster-randomised field experiment involving 1,845 students across 167 workshops at 10 universities, we find that participation increased support for three costly climate policies: a beef tax, a short-haul flight ban, and a meat-free university canteen. The effects appear to be driven by increased beliefs in policy effectiveness, alongside gains in climate knowledge and more positive emotions toward climate action. Effects were broadly consistent across participant groups and persisted for a sub-sample who completed a six-week follow-up survey. 

Beyond the specific intervention, the findings speak to broader debates about the role of education in climate governance. Our findings are also relevant to those thinking about how environmental politics is taught in university settings and what kinds of educational approaches can foster engagement with debates about climate policy.

For those interested in learning more about the intervention, information about the 2tonnes workshop is available here (in English or French): https://en.2tonnes.org/.

If you are curious about adapting the workshop format for your own teaching, or would like to discuss the findings further, we would be glad to hear from you.

Best wishes,

Max Bradley (on behalf of Susanna Garside, Rens Chazottes, and Nina López Uroz)

Max Bradley

Researcher

Department of Political and Social Sciences (SPS) 

European University Institute

Via dei Roccetini 9, San Domenico di Fiesole (FI), Italy

Personal Website: https://maxbradleyeui.github.io/

EUI Profile: https://www.eui.eu/people?id=max-bradley

 

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