Climate crisis and the demand for more empiric research in social sciences: emerging topics and challenges in environmental psychology / Crisis climática y demanda de más investigación empírica en Ciencias Sociales: tópicos emergentes y retos en Psicología Ambiental

Abstract

Climate change (CC) is one of the challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century. The complex nature of the phenomenon requires further empiric research from the field of social sciences in general, and environmental psychology in particular. Clarifying how people and human communities interpret, evaluate and act in relation to climate change, environmental psychology can help to broaden the perspective on this field of study and make significant contributions related to emerging topics. Even more, it can help to elucidate the most appropriate tools that can allow people and communities to tackle and adapt to climate change by generating effective solutions. This article sets out certain pathways to give greater visibility to the research agenda about these topics, based on a review of the contributions made by the Intergovernmental Panel on CC and the explicit demand for empiric research in the sphere of social sciences.