Fostering environmental citizenship through carbon literacy: The role of university curriculum and educational policy

Abstract Recognising the urgent need to cultivate environmental citizenship to address the climate crisis, this paper investigates the pivotal role of carbon literacy in higher education. The study examines the relationship between students' carbon literacy—their integrated knowledge, skills and attitudes regarding climate change—and their engagement in environmental citizenship behaviours. The research was conducted at a large public university in Egypt, offering insight into climate change education (CCE) in a non‐Western, Global South higher education system. Employing a mixed‐methods sequential explanatory design, the study first quantitatively analysed survey responses from 1114 undergraduate students. This was followed by semi‐structured interviews with 30 students to explore the pedagogical experiences that underpin the quantitative results. The findings revealed a robust positive correlation between carbon literacy and environmental citizenship. A regression model indicated that carbon literacy components collectively accounted for 88.8% of the variance in environmental citizenship in this sample, with students' attitudes emerging as the most significant predictor. Qualitative data illuminated how pedagogical integration of climate topics directly influenced students' skills and concern, while also revealing challenges such as emotional burden. While we acknowledge recent critiques of ‘carbon tunnel vision’ in CCE, our focus on carbon literacy is framed as one important entry point into broader environmental citizenship rather than a comprehensive model of climate education. The study therefore suggests that strategically embedding carbon literacy in core curricula may be a promising policy lever for fostering environmental citizenship in higher education, and it offers context‐sensitive curriculum and policy recommendations for institutions seeking to strengthen their climate responses.