Expanding adaptive capacity: Innovations in education for place-based climate change adaptation planning

The IPCC emphasises the need to centre climate change adaptation in climate actions due to a lack of progress on meaningful climate change mitigation. This requires the expansion of adaptive capacity across many sectors, including education. Research asserts the key role formal education plays in increasing the learning and cognitive aspects of adaptive capacity and associated capabilities, but further work is required to understand the impacts of attempts to enact such changes, specifically in relation to climate change adaptation planning. Drawing on impact data collected from an experimental place-based digital educational resource – Climate Smart – that includes a serious online role play game, designed with and for second level students aged 15–17 in Ireland, this paper outlines the challenges of, and opportunities for, engaging young people in learning about climate change adaptation planning. We conclude that while such educational innovations are impactful in the short-term and essential for developing foundational knowledge and skills, as well as shaping individual and social norms, they will be insufficient alone to optimise capabilities for long term adaptive capacity for climate change adaptation. Wider complementary structural changes across multiple systems which support people to enact their learning and functionalise their capabilities are required. Finally, a prospective agenda for progressing adaptive capacity for climate adaptation planning with education at its core is outlined.