Climate Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviour
This topic covers climate literacy, environmental attitudes, environmental civic engagement, environmental participation, and pro-environmental behaviour.
Recent work investigates the measurement of climate knowledge, the relationship between education and active environmental engagement, and cross-national environmental public sphere behaviour.
Related project work examines climate literacy and environmentally friendly behaviour among young people in Slovenia and Europe.
Connected Work
Projects and Publications
For the full unchanged publication list, see Publications. For funded project details, see Research Projects.
Key Findings
Selected findings from this research
Branilović, S. & Kirbiš, A. (2026). Environmental issue polarization across democracies: Political orientation, environmental attitudes, and private-sphere pro-environmental behaviour. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 115, 103240.
Key finding: Using ISSP Environment IV data (2020–2022), right-wing orientation was associated with less pro-environmental private-sphere behaviour, partly through environmental attitudes; both direct and indirect associations were stronger in more liberal democracies.
doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2026.103240 Full publication entryLubej, M. & Kirbiš, A. (2025). Measuring climate knowledge: A systematic review of quantitative studies. iScience.
Key finding: A systematic review of 92 studies found that the measurement of climate knowledge is inconsistent, especially in how its dimensions are defined, and calls for standardized instruments.
doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2025.111888Kirbiš, A. (2023). Environmental attitudes among youth: How much do the educational characteristics of parents and young people matter?. Sustainability.
Key finding: Among Slovenian youth (N=1,508), general-track secondary students held stronger environmental attitudes than vocational-track peers, while parental education had little effect.
doi.org/10.3390/su151511921Penker, M. & Kirbiš, A. (2025). Education for future? Investigating the role of education in explaining active green engagement: A multilevel moderated mediation analysis. Sustainable Futures.
Key finding: Across 28 countries (ISSP, N=44,100), willingness to pay for environmental protection partly mediated the education-to-green-engagement link, and the pathway was stronger in low-corruption countries.
doi.org/10.1016/j.sftr.2025.100608Penker, M. & Kirbiš, A. (2026). Extending the civic voluntarism model: A cross-national study of environmental public sphere behavior. Heliyon.
Key finding: Across 28 countries (2020 ISSP, N=44,100), the Civic Voluntarism Model explained environmental public-sphere behaviour best in affluent countries with high quality of government.
doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2025.e44242Frequently Asked
Questions on this topic
Is climate knowledge measured consistently across studies?
A systematic review of 92 studies found the measurement of climate knowledge is inconsistent, especially in how its dimensions are defined, and called for standardized instruments (Lubej, Petraš & Kirbiš, 2025).