The discourse on the climate emergency and environmental literacy under debate.
UCM hosts an international meeting on communication and climate change.
Madrid, January 8, 2026 – The Faculty of Information Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) will host the 1st International Conference on Environmental Communication, Literacy, and Climate Activism on January 14, 15, and 16, 2026. This leading forum will bring together researchers, educators, communicators, and representatives from European institutions to discuss the challenges of communication in the face of the climate crisis. As part of this event, the ELCRA Project Partners Meeting, led by the University of Siena, Italy, will also take place on January 14.
The conference aims to foster the exchange of experiences and the development of effective communication strategies that promote environmental literacy and citizen participation in climate action. Over the three days, topics such as climate misinformation, the role of media in environmental education and literacy, communicating the ecological emergency, and new forms of activism in digital environments in the Age of Artificial Intelligence will be addressed. Participants will include researchers from various European universities and members of the ELCRA project (Environmental Literacy in Higher Education Context for Preventing Violent Radicalization in Climate Activism), which promotes academic cooperation and the creation of research networks on education, communication, and environmental sustainability at the European level.
The Partners’ Meeting is part of the activities of the ELCRA Project, coordinated by the University of Siena and funded by the Erasmus program. The researchers from the ELCRA Project attending the Madrid meeting come from, in addition to the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain), the event’s organizer, the University of Coimbra (Portugal), the Jagiellonian University of Krakow (Poland), the University of Klaipėda (Lithuania), the student organizations Erasmus Student Network Italy (ESN Italy) and Erasmus Student Network Portugal (ESN), the social enterprise OpenCom, and the University of Siena (Italy).
The conference program includes plenary sessions and roundtables with representatives from institutions such as, the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (AEMET). Government of Spain, Acciona, the Association of Environmental Journalists, the National Museum of Natural Sciences, the EFE News Agency, Digital Volunteers in Emergencies, Wood Mackenzie, Repsol, Standard & Poor’s, among others. It also includes thematic workshops and presentations of scientific papers, with the aim of establishing a permanent space for collaboration between the scientific community and social actors involved in environmental literacy, the sustainable circular economy, legislation, institutional communication, and preventing the radicalization of climate activism.
With this initiative, promoted by the Internet Medialab Research Group, the Faculty of Information Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) reaffirms its commitment to responsible training, research, and dissemination regarding major environmental challenges and the need for ethical, rigorous, and transformative communication in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
Register and discover the full programme: https://bit.ly/Congreso_ELCRA_UCM
UCM Team. ELCRA Project.