Agents of Action? Youth Climate Perceptions: A Literature Review

Youth perspectives are important for climate risk research. Young people are both the decisionmakers of the future and have a lifespan where the consequences of climate change are expected to intensify. However, little research appears to be conducted on youth risk perception related to climate change and climate action within risk research. This paper presents a literature review on youth climate perception from a wide range of disciplines, provides a thematic overview of the literature, and discusses how these insights might inform the well-documented gap between youth climate perceptions and climate action. The literature review identifies several cognitive, psychological, social, and cultural aspects of knowledge and emotions as important in influencing youth perceptions, as well as motivating and sustaining youth action over time. In this context, the review identifies self- and collective efficacy, proximity, collaboration, and social identity to be especially important. To capture the interrelatedness and complexity of these factors and their combined impacts, this paper suggests that future research makes use of frameworks allowing a broad and holistic understanding of youth risk perception and behavior.

Keywords: Youth, Adolescents, Climate change, Risk perception, Climate action, Emotions, Knowledge.