Eco-anxiety is a subject that is currently little explored in European educational practice. Knowledge of the subject is limited, and educational policies are almost non-existent to support it. EcoReactEU aims to  ensure  the  skills  development  of  youth  workers  and  the  entire  European  educational  community,   to  promote  the  integration  of  eco-anxiety  in  their  practices  with  young  people  and  thus  offer  a  first  educational  response  to  it.  The project also aspires  to  encourage  public  policies  to  make  eco-anxiety  a  major  issue  for  consideration  in  national  and  European  youth  and  educational  policies.

For more information:  EcoReactEU website

• Jennifer Uchendu

This research project focuses on the acceptability of wind energy and investigates the involved stakeholder’s perception of the impact of wind power deployment. Stakeholders' mental models of the impact of wind power deployment are mapped and integrated into energy system models to identify and address possible misjudgments among stakeholders on the impacts of wind energy deployment that may impede the energy transition. 

• prof. dr. Martin Junginger
• dr. Luis Eduardo Ramirez Camargo
• Leanda Vedder MSc

Under the rising pressure of planetary crises, including climate change, urban youth are facing increasing mental health problems. Mental health problems are amplified among urban youth through a detachment from natural environments (e.g., green spaces), especially in cities where opportunities for nature interaction are limited. The literature suggests that nature exposure may stimulate pro-environmental behaviours (PEB) and improve mental health. However, previous studies are limited in scope, focusing on (i) adults and (ii) the global north while (iii) assessing nature exposure solely at home cross-sectionally. No study has investigated whether youths’ causal beliefs (i.e., mental models) about nature connectedness affect the impact of nature exposure on mental health and PEB longitudinally.

This project will be the first to integrate high-resolution, longitudinal data on nature exposure with cognitive and behavioural models in daily life. We will investigate urban youths’ PEB and mental health in relation to nature contact in varying urban settings. We will test if causal pathways between nature exposure, mental health, and PEB are moderated/mediated by individuals’ mental models about nature exposure and nature connectedness.

• Martina Bubalo
• dr. S.M. Labib

• prof. dr. Marko Hekkert
• Annuska Toebast-Wensink MSc MA

MECCA aims to identify adaptation and mitigation strategies by analyzing the gap between stakeholder’s perceptions of change and risk and projected impacts of human activities under changing climatic conditions in East Africa (Lake Victoria) and West Africa (Lagos). For more information see: MECCA website

• dr. Maryse Chappin