IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i16p7556-d1729552.html

Climate Change Projects and Youth Engagement: Empowerment and Contested Knowledge

Author

Listed:
  • Kostas Stavrianakis

    (Aberdeen Business School, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen AB10 7AQ, UK)

  • Jacob A. E. Nielsen

    (Aberdeen Business School, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen AB10 7AQ, UK)

  • Zoe Morrison

    (Aberdeen Business School, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen AB10 7AQ, UK)

Abstract

This study investigated youth’s empowerment through EU-funded climate change projects (CCPs) and the role that social research and public engagement play in that process. The importance of considering youth empowerment in a time of climate change is increasingly recognized. Youth are exposed to interrelated health, socioeconomic, and political vulnerabilities caused by climate change, but they often lack resources to address and navigate these changes. To help address these issues, youth empowerment holds the potential to give youth a greater influence over their lives in the context of an evolving climate. EU-funded CCPs play a crucial role in EU’s climate mitigation and adaptation policies, and the implementation of these projects can have widespread implications for youth across the EU. However, there is little research exploring the local youth implications of EU-funded CCPs. In this paper, we want to start addressing this knowledge gap by exploring how youth empowerment was facilitated, shaped, and restrained over a year-long collaboration with students from a Greek school as part of a Horizon 2020 project on the social acceptance of Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCUS) technologies. The findings indicate that the activities provided the students with opportunities to explore and express different types of concerns, knowledge, and perspectives on issues related to climate change, social acceptance, and CCUS. However, the empowering potential of these activities was also shaped by power differentials and contestations around the validity of different knowledge sources. For meaningful youth engagement through Horizon 2020 initiatives, more longitudinal and meaningful participation is needed.

Suggested Citation

  • Kostas Stavrianakis & Jacob A. E. Nielsen & Zoe Morrison, 2025. "Climate Change Projects and Youth Engagement: Empowerment and Contested Knowledge," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-22, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:16:p:7556-:d:1729552
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/16/7556/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/16/7556/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heejin Han & Sang Wuk Ahn, 2020. "Youth Mobilization to Stop Global Climate Change: Narratives and Impact," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-23, May.
    2. Gemma Hayward & Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson, 2021. "‘Seeing with Empty Eyes’: a systems approach to understand climate change and mental health in Bangladesh," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 1-30, March.
    3. Le Kien & Nguyen My, 2021. "How Education Empowers Women in Developing Countries," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 21(2), pages 511-536, April.
    4. David Budtz Pedersen, 2016. "Integrating social sciences and humanities in interdisciplinary research," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 2(1), pages 1-7, December.
    5. Nadzirah Hosen & Hitoshi Nakamura & Amran Hamzah, 2020. "Adaptation to Climate Change: Does Traditional Ecological Knowledge Hold the Key?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-18, January.
    6. Enrico Ivaldi & Margaret Antonicelli, 2025. "Deprivation and Regional Cohesion as Challenges to Sustainability: Evidence from Italy and Greece," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-23, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Olivier Boiral & Marie‐Christine Brotherton & Léo Rivaud & David Talbot, 2022. "Comparing the uncomparable? An investigation of car manufacturers' climate performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2213-2229, July.
    2. Tess Penne; & Heleen Delanghe; & Tim Goedemé, 2021. "An exploration of key factors that determine the affordability of compulsory education in Europe," Working Papers 2108, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    3. Beata Raszka & Halina Dzieżyc & Maria Hełdak, 2021. "Assessment of the Development Potential of Post-Industrial Areas in Terms of Social, Economic and Environmental Aspects: The Case of Wałbrzych Region (Poland)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-17, July.
    4. My Nguyen & Kien Le, 2023. "The impacts of women's land ownership: Evidence from Vietnam," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 158-177, February.
    5. Julia L. Ginsburg & Natasha Blanchet-Cohen, 2025. "“Even the Small Work That I Do, It Has Impact, It Has Meaning”: Collective Meaning-Making in Youth Climate Groups," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-14, August.
    6. Samar Ben Romdhane & Sang Lee & Salem Al-Shaebi, 2023. "Enhancing Sustainability Communication among UAE’s Higher Education Students: The Relationship between Sustainable Living Knowledge and Intention to Live Sustainably," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-14, August.
    7. Marcellus Mbah & Sandra Ajaps & Petra Molthan-Hill, 2021. "A Systematic Review of the Deployment of Indigenous Knowledge Systems towards Climate Change Adaptation in Developing World Contexts: Implications for Climate Change Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-24, April.
    8. My Nguyen, 2024. "Temperature and intimate partner violence," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 71(2), pages 197-218, May.
    9. Lamissa Barro & Aïcha Tiendrebeogo & Issa Nana & Landry Paul Armand Mawuvi Ky, 2025. "Maternal Education, Economic Empowerment and Infant Mortality in Burkina Faso," Economies, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-20, March.
    10. Amanda Wood & Jack Daly & Jourdan Folger & Rujia Xie & Norbert L. W. Wilson, 2025. "Cultivating an ethos of “everyday convergence”: insights from the Multiscale RECIPES Network for food waste reduction," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, December.
    11. Elisabeth Eide & Risto Kunelius, 2021. "Voices of a generation the communicative power of youth activism," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 1-20, November.
    12. Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson & Alvin Chandra & Karen E. McNamara, 2023. "Stories of loss and healing: connecting non-economic loss and damage, gender-based violence and wellbeing erosion in the Asia–Pacific region," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(11), pages 1-34, November.
    13. Gabriele Prati & Iana Tzankova & Cinzia Albanesi & Elvira Cicognani, 2022. "Longitudinal Predictors of Perceived Climate Change Importance and Worry among Italian Youths: A Machine Learning Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-19, November.
    14. Harriet Thew & Lucie Middlemiss & Jouni Paavola, 2022. "“You Need a Month’s Holiday Just to Get over It!” Exploring Young People’s Lived Experiences of the UN Climate Change Negotiations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-21, April.
    15. Linnea A. Evans & Omar Gomez & Dulce J. Jiménez & Heather J. Williamson & Ann Turnlund Carver & Sairam Parthasarathy & Samantha Sabo, 2023. "Engaging Youth and Young Adults in the COVID-19 Pandemic Response via the “It’s Our Turn” Crowdsourcing Contest," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-14, March.
    16. Cato Waeterloos & Peter Conradie & Michel Walrave & Koen Ponnet, 2021. "Digital Issue Movements: Political Repertoires and Drivers of Participation among Belgian Youth in the Context of ‘School Strike for Climate’," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-19, September.
    17. Maria Giuseppina Bartolo & Rocco Servidio & Anna Lisa Palermiti & Maria Rosaria Nappa & Angela Costabile, 2023. "Pro-Environmental Behaviors and Well-Being in Adolescence: The Mediating Role of Place Attachment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(10), pages 1-12, May.
    18. Nisbett, Nicole & Spaiser, Viktoria, 2022. "The Moral Power of Youth Climate Activists - Transforming International Climate Politics?," SocArXiv 5zsra, Center for Open Science.
    19. Sharma, Reema Bera & Majumdar, Bandhan Bandhu & Maitra, Bhargab, 2024. "Commuter and non-commuter preferences for plug-in hybrid electric vehicle: A case study of Delhi and Kolkata, India," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    20. Andrew Benjamin Bricker & Martin Zeilinger, 2025. "The many paths ahead: toward an interdisciplinary framework for Critical Cycling Studies," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:16:p:7556-:d:1729552. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.