Climate Knowledge Gaps: Toward Enhanced Public Perception and Resilience

Climate change is increasingly recognized as one of the major public health challenges of the 21st century. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, declining air quality, food and water insecurity, vector-borne diseases, and mental health impacts are affecting communities worldwide. Despite growing scientific evidence and public discussion, substantial gaps remain in climate-health knowledge, resource access, risk perception, and understanding of climate-related health impacts among the public, students, professionals, policymakers, and vulnerable populations. Misinformation, uneven access to climate education, cultural differences, political polarization, and communication barriers can hinder trust, engagement, and action. Recent efforts have emphasized climate-health education, science communication, community engagement, and resilience-building strategies. However, important questions remain regarding how climate-health information is communicated, interpreted, trusted, and translated into individual and collective actions that protect health and promote adaptation.

This Research Topic aims to advance understanding of climate knowledge gaps and identify evidence-based approaches to improve public perception, climate-health literacy, and resilience through public health education and promotion. We seek contributions that examine how individuals and communities perceive climate-related health risks, what factors influence climate knowledge and behavior, and which strategies can improve communication across diverse populations, especially marginalized and disadvantaged communities. The Research Topic welcomes studies on educational interventions, communication campaigns, community-based approaches, policy initiatives, digital tools, and culturally responsive frameworks that reduce misinformation, strengthen adaptive capacity, and promote equitable climate resilience. It also welcomes work on arts, humanities, storytelling, and cultural engagement when these approaches are clearly linked to climate-health education, public engagement, or health promotion.

Suitable themes for manuscripts include, but are not limited to:
o climate literacy and climate-health education across the life course;
o public perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors related to climate-health risks;
o health communication, risk communication, misinformation, disinformation, and trust;
o community-based, participatory, and co-created approaches to climate resilience;
o climate change education in schools, universities, workplaces, health systems, and professional training programs;
o climate anxiety and psychological responses when linked to public health education or resilience;
o digital tools, social media, arts, humanities, and storytelling for climate-health engagement;
o evaluation of interventions, resources, policies, and programs that strengthen public health preparedness; and
o planetary health approaches to climate resilience, health promotion, equity, and sustainable development.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Climate-health literacy, climate change communication, risk perception, public health education, health promotion, climate resilience, health communication, risk communication, misinformation, disinformation

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.