Young and realistic? A transnational case for critical language awareness in climate and energy education

D.L. Wuebben, S.A. Ferruz-González, D.L. Calcagno, M. Paradés, A. González del Valle

Frontiers in Communication Vol. 11, pp. 1876994

Summary:

This study examines how to help university students translate climate concern into support for energy transition policies, with specific anchoring to Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7) and Climate Action (SDG 13). Using survey data from Argentina, Denmark, Italy, Spain, and the United States (n = 404), we find near-universal agreement among young people that climate change is human-driven, yet markedly weaker and differentiated support for specific decarbonization policies. Our multivariate regression analyses show that policy support is shaped less by personal beliefs than by how energy and climate policies are framed: perceived health co-benefits consistently raise support, while economic harm narratives suppress it. Together, the findings suggest that the gap between climate concern and action is partly due to a lack of energy literacy, which, we argue, might be ameliorated with critical language awareness (CLA). We present a three-part energy literacy intervention that is grounded in CLA and designed to build students’ capacity to interrogate the construals, trade-offs, and distributional claims embedded in climate and energy discourse, and to connect these to credible, agency-oriented everyday practices bridging SDG 7 and SDG 13.

Spanish layman's summary:

Este estudio analiza cómo el lenguaje sobre clima y energía influye en el apoyo de jóvenes de cinco países a políticas de descarbonización. Propone reforzar la alfabetización energética y la conciencia crítica del lenguaje para convertir la preocupación climática en acción.

English layman's summary:

This study examines how climate and energy language shapes young people’s support for decarbonization policies across five countries. It proposes stronger energy literacy and critical language awareness to help turn climate concern into informed action.

Keywords: climate action, critical language awareness, energy literacy, energy transitions, sustainability pedagogies, sustainable development goals, university teaching and learning

JCR-JIF Impact Factor and WoS quartile: 2,000 - Q2 (2025)

DOI reference: https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1876994

Published on paper: 2026.

Published on-line: August 2026.

Citation:
D.L. Wuebben, S.A. Ferruz-González, D.L. Calcagno, M. Paradés, A. González del Valle, "Young and realistic? A transnational case for critical language awareness in climate and energy education", Frontiers in Communication, Vol. 11, pp. 1876994, 2026. [Online: August 2026] doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2026.1876994