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Introduction to the 2024 Climate Literacy Guide

Images of the 15 logos for the U.S. Global Change Research Program

About this guide

Climate Literacy: Essential Principles for Understanding and Addressing Climate Change presents information that is important for individuals and communities to know and understand about Earth’s climate, the impacts of climate change, and solutions. Principles in the guide can serve as discussion starters or launching points for learning about the climate crisis and what’s being done to address it across the world.

The guide aims to promote greater climate literacy by providing this educational and communication framework of principles and concepts.

Download the Climate Literacy Guide in PDF


Who is this guide for?

Outside in a park, an educator and students gather around an activity board with different colored sticky notes.

Youth leaders with Action for the Climate Emergency at a climate action workshop in New York City. Credit: Action for the Climate Emergency

This guide is written with educators, communicators, and decision-makers in mind. It may be helpful in structuring curricula; assessing gains in people’s knowledge and understanding; stimulating dialogue among people with different interests, skills, and perspectives; and informing climate-related decisions and policies.


What is climate literacy and why does it matter?

A group of students gather around a bubbling, smoking science experiment that is contained in a mason jar. The students look especially excited about the reaction happening in front of them.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Planet Stewards students learn firsthand about the impacts of ocean acidification. Credit: D.J. Kast/University of Southern California

Climate literacy is an understanding of how the climate system works, how human actions influence climate, and how climate influences people and other parts of the Earth system.

Climate literacy is important because people who understand the processes, causes, and effects of climate change are better able to assess evidence and claims about evidence, discuss options to manage risks, and take well-informed actions.

A climate-literate person:

  • Understands the essential principles of Earth’s climate system and the options to address human-caused climate change, which are summarized in this guide;

  • Recognizes credible information about climate change and knows where to find it;

  • Communicates about climate change in accurate and effective ways; and

  • Is able to make informed decisions related to climate change.


The expanding focus of climate literacy

People standing in a museum exhibition observe a displayed image of a person leading climate solutions.

The Wild Center’s Climate Solutions exhibit, funded by the Institute for Library and Museum Services, shares hopeful stories from the Adirondacks in New York State and interactive examples of ways to mitigate climate change. Credit: The Wild Center

The Climate Literacy Guide was first published in 2008 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, and was updated in 2009. This third edition of the guide reflects recent advances in our understanding of the climate challenge. As a result, this guide’s definition of climate literacy now incorporates other types of knowledge about the climate system, in addition to physical climate science. The term now includes local and Indigenous Knowledges, social and cultural contexts, the social sciences, climate solutions, and climate justice concepts.


What is climate change and why is it often called a crisis?

Brightly colored oil painting using vivid blues, purples, oranges, yellows, and greens depicts a person with lighter skin in the aftermath of a storm. The person stands in a yard amid scattered debris from what appears to be a destroyed home. A house in the background remains standing, with a row of leafless trees behind it.

Artist's statement: “This piece was painted after the devastation of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. The reality of the climate crisis and its impact on those experiencing poverty was visually clear in the reference photo I used. As I painted, I connected even more with the violence and rawness of the losses Puerto Ricans faced. My intention in painting is to stir up the empathy in others. This woman's vibrant clothes and home seem to defy the hopelessness of her stance and circumstance. I don't want her to feel alone in this crisis.” Credit: Mia Merlin, Art x Climate, Maria, (2017, oil on paper) This art may only be reproduced or re-used in connection with the Fifth National Climate Assessment. Any other use must be negotiated with the author. 

Our planet is warming at an unusually rapid rate compared to changes over at least the past 2,000 years. This global warming is unequivocally caused by emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities, mainly from burning fossil fuels (such as coal, oil, and natural gas) for transportation and energy. Global warming and related climate changes are, in turn, causing increasingly severe and harmful impacts on people and the ecosystems that support us, with worsening effects on our health, safety, security, and prosperity. 

Climate change is often called a challenge or crisis due to the severity of its impacts, the urgency of implementing solutions, and the complexity of the problem. Climate change is already intensifying pressure on physical infrastructure and the social, economic, and political systems we rely on, in addition to threatening the health and well-being of humans and all life on Earth.

Some future climate changes are unavoidable and/or irreversible, such as ice sheet loss and permanent flooding of coastal areas, but can be limited by large and rapid cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions. Urgent action to cut emissions and expand adaptation in this decade is key to minimizing impacts on people and ecosystems. Rapid action would also deliver many benefits, especially for air quality and health. These transitions would involve large-scale technological, infrastructure, land-use, and behavioral changes and shifts in governance structures.


International Efforts to Limit Global Warming

A group photograph of people celebrating adoption of the Paris Agreement at the 21st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris in 2015.

World leaders celebrate the adoption of the Paris Agreement at the 21st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in 2015. The United Nations climate change process seeks to advance international efforts to mitigate climate change and address its adverse effects. Credit: State Department

Through the Paris Agreement, nearly every country has joined a collective goal of limiting global warming to “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursuing efforts to “limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” This builds on the objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of stabilizing “greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.”

International youth gather in an arena to discuss and hear from leaders at the Dubai Youth Climate Dialogue.

Panelists engage in climate discussions at the Dubai Youth Climate Dialogue + Youth Stocktake Outcomes Launch during the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai in 2023. Credit: COP28, Photo by Anthony Fleyhan