This practical and entertaining FREE course —the first of its kind for climate change—teaches behavior change principles for climate change mitigation through individual and collective actions. The course gives you an understanding of the influencing factors affecting pro-climate behavior; behavior tools for countering these factors; the process for applying behavioral principles to climate change; how to match the behavior tool to the audience and situation; and outreach and communication tips. Case studies and examples are provided throughout.

FREE DEMO available-try it first here!

The course is comprised of 4 Lectures and 3 associated Learning Modules. The Learning Modules are best used upon the end of the relevant lecture section, following a summary slide of Key Lessons. Each module is offered twice: the Initial Learning module helps you learn the material at a comfortable pace and the Achieving Mastery module lets you practice until you respond accurately and without hesitation. The course is taught by Dr. Caroly Shumway, Director, Center for Behavior and Climate, has been reviewed by the CBC Advisory Council, and has been beta-tested by a diverse mix of climate change professionals and behavioral scientists.

The Course Certificate is an official CBC credential confirming that you have achieved total mastery of one of our CBC courses. Certificates are provided as a downloadable pdf. To receive your certificate, you will need to email us a copy of your Course Completion Report upon completion.  See the Contact Us webpage at the bottom of our home page; please email to that address.

A Course Certificate includes:

•       the course name and date of completion
•       the instructor's signature and title
•       CBC's logo
•       a statement from CBC confirming that the person has achieved total mastery of the course.

The course is available for individual learners and universities alike. We offer different payment options for universities. University professors can independently verify their student's course completion status as course administrators.

Learning Objectives

Understand the influencing factors affecting pro-climate behavior

Understand and apply behavioral tools to the influencing factors

Understand outreach and communication tools (storytelling and framing)

Apply behavioral tools with specific audiences and situations

Estimated Time: Recorded Lectures (2-hour): Exercises (2-3 hour)

Testimonials for our Behavior Change for Climate Action 101 course:

From a climate practitioner: "Overall, there is excellent content in this course! I appreciate how rooted in evidence the information is and how it frames encouraging actions in behavioral science, providing nonprofit practitioners with a solid foundation for determining if and how they can encourage their communities to take action.... I can't wait to see it out in the world and put to good use by practitioners!"                                               

               Erin B., Climate Change Practitioner and Educator

From a behavioral scientist: "Wow, overall this course was exactly what I was looking for to connect the principles of behavior to climate change communication. The content was interesting, easy to digest, and nicely paced. My favorite content was the knowledge application and specific action resources. I noticed so many crossover terms and concepts between the work that I do and the work that you do. thank you so much for this opportunity to continue to learn and grow and add to my repertoire!"

Hadley K., Board Certified Behavior Analyst 

From a climate change graduate student: "As someone without much of a background in psychology, it definitely helped me get a better grasp on motivations, how to encourage behaviors, and things to avoid when trying to implement behavior changes. I enjoyed that...I was tested on the content immediately following the completion of the lectures instead of entirely at the end. I think it helped me understand the concepts piece by piece and build upon each section. The hints were also very helpful and I liked consulting them to further understand the concepts. Overall great course, I definitely learned a lot and am excited to apply it to my research!"

Gina D.R., climate change engineering graduate

From a science policy postdoctoral fellow: There was some really interesting course content in the lectures. I especially liked the 2nd and 3rd parts that focused more on examples and specific actions we can take around us. in particular, learning about communication techniques as well as what drives liberals vs conservatives was very interesting. It was great to see... data included to back up the claims presented.

 Georgia L., Ph.D., biological engineer and AAAS Congressional Science & Engineering Fellow