Education outcomes in the era of global climate change

Children and youth are vulnerable to the threat of climate change, yet potential non-health impacts, such as those on global education outcomes, are not well understood. In this cross-disciplinary review, we synthesize research linking climate change-related stressors with children’s education outcomes. We find that climate change is probably already undermining education outcomes for many populations worldwide via multiple direct and indirect pathways. We suggest that a developmental life-course framework is well suited to understanding these effects, particularly how climate risks can accumulate across the life course. Further, we show that existing vulnerabilities moderate the relationship between climate stressors and adverse education outcomes. We conclude with a discussion of current methodological challenges and outline future research directions.