Despite several decades of research on more effectively communicating climate change to the general public, there is only a limited amount of knowledge about how young people engage with an issue that will shape and define their generation. We provide a thorough review of international studies in this area, drawing on survey data and qualitative research. The review is organized into two main sections. The first briefly situates young people's engagement with climate change relative to other concerns and examines levels of awareness, concern and 'scepticism' among this age group. The second focuses on four key determinants of effective climate change communication and assess whether young people differ in any appreciable way from research findings relating to the general population. The four factors are the role of values and worldviews in determining climate change views; the efficacy of 'information-based' interventions; the 'psychological distance' of climate change and message framing; and the role of trusted messengers. In the concluding section we discuss the implications for engaging young people more effectively and explore possibilities for future research. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. How to cite this article:WIREs Clim Change 2015Change , 6:523-534. doi: 10.1002 INTRODUCTION Y oung people are in a unique position as they face the reality of a changing climate. National and international legislation for mitigating climate change typically operates on decadal timescales, with many targets for decarbonization focusing on the 2020-2050 time period.1 As the generation whose adult lives will overlap most closely with this policy window, they are potentially best-placed to define the long-term societal response to climate change. Yet they are also the most vulnerable to the legacy of decisions made by the older generations. Although young people arguably have the most to gain and the most to lose in a changing climate, their voices are not prominent in the political, media, or cultural discourse on climate change 2 and (as the evidence presented in this review shows) engagement with climate change among this important demographic group is in many ways limited.While some studies have captured young people's views about climate change, there is very little existing research exploring ways in which this population could be more effectively engaged. There is, however, a much larger literature on environmental psychology that dates back to the 1960s and, more recently, 523environmental education theory, both of which provide valuable and relevant insights. While we situate the current review within this broader literature and draw from it on occasion, the focus is on evidence directly related to climate change and how people aged 12-25 engage with this issue specifically. We define 'young people' using this broad age category for two reasons. First, there is no universally agreed definition of 'youth,' and studies in this review that have described their sample using terms such as 'young adults' or 'young peop...

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Uncertainty, context specificity and complexity in the fields of climate change and energy provision are best addressed by transdisciplinary research approaches involving the stakeholders and potential users of research results. In this article, we present transdisciplinary regional vulnerability assessments in three Austrian provinces and one German region. We highlight region-specific sub-challenges and the locations of key vulnerabilities. The phases of the assessment process, stakeholder involvement, types of knowledge included and transdisciplinary methods are discussed as well as the key outcomes of the assessments. We conclude that the heterogeneity of the involved stakeholders, the transdisciplinary methods as well as stakeholders’ “ownership” of, and social learning on, the regional vulnerability assessment improved its quality and societal relevance