How Can Psychology Contribute to Climate Change Governance? A Systematic Review

Abstract

The urgency to reply to climate change requires a governance perspective that connects multiple societal levels and sectors and involves a plurality of actors. Psychologists should take an important role in addressing the ongoing climate crisis, together with other practitioners, scholars, policymakers and citizens. This systematic review aims to show the contribution psychology has offered in the governance of climate change, illustrating how psychological scholarship is positioned in the interdisciplinary discourse on climate governance and the way psychological constructs and theories are implemented. Following the PRISMA guidelines, two electronic databases (APA PsycInfo and Scopus) were screened, and 52 publications meeting the eligibility criteria were included and thoroughly analysed. The literature at the intersection between climate governance and governance is relatively scarce, yet it covers different domains and scales of analysis. Psychological contributions are always integrated into a broader interdisciplinary discourse spanning from the environmental to the social sciences, yet a scarce theoretical specificity has been documented. We found an abundance of research on the determinants of pro-environmental behaviours, which often neglects context-grounded factors, while the relational and dynamic dimensions of governance concerning group processes and collective engagement are rarely taken into due consideration. We argue that psychologists should continue engaging in interdisciplinary collaborations to collectively craft climate solutions, especially focusing on citizenry’s active engagement. Deeper theoretical elaboration on the interface between governance and psychology is needed, particularly from an ecological and systemic perspective.