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Knowledge alone does not create resilience: What COP31 must make possible
04/11/2026
Dr Ayse Yildiz, Assistant Professor in Risk and Programme Director for the MSc in Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management at the University of Leicester, writes:
Climate resilience develops when people can use what they know to protect themselves and those around them. Research on disaster education and flood preparedness shows why COP31 should strengthen the connections between learning, community participation and the practical support that makes action possible.
A family agreeing where to meet in an emergency, a school practising its preparedness plan, or neighbours helping one another understand a warning: these are everyday activities through which resilience takes shape. Each brings knowledge into contact with a practical decision.
Understanding that connection is central to my research. I examine how people perceive risk, what helps them prepare and how education and public institutions can support their efforts. Across studies involving children, communities and migrant populations, a shared question emerges: what conditions enable people to act on the risks they understand?
This is the question I will bring to COP31 in Antalya. It connects the conference’s discussions about education, participation and adaptation with the circumstances in which climate action must work.
Learning that supports preparedness
Education provides an important starting point. In an eighteen-month study involving 720 schoolchildren in Türkiye, we examined the effects of interactive disaster education on risk perception and preparedness. Children who received the intervention placed greater importance on preparedness and reported adopting more protective measures. These included practising emergency responses and agreeing meeting points.
For climate education, the implication is practical. Learning should help children understand the risks in their surroundings and develop confidence in appropriate responses. Local examples, discussion and opportunities to practise can connect an unfamiliar concept with a situation children recognise.
That learning also creates opportunities for cooperation. A classroom discussion can prompt a family conversation; a preparedness exercise can identify something a school needs to improve. Teachers, families and public services each have a role in supporting what happens next.
The educational task therefore extends to the arrangements around the learner. Children need adults and institutions that can respond to their questions, support appropriate action and address concerns beyond their control.
Making protective action feasible
Our research with migrant and mobile populations in Chiang Mai, Thailand, adds another dimension to this relationship between knowledge and action. The study combined 206 survey responses with 16 expert interviews. Participants described how housing circumstances, financial resources, language and access to trusted information shaped their options for flood preparedness. The findings relate to the people we studied and offer insights into how preparedness can be supported across different circumstances.
The research also documented resourcefulness. Participants shared information, translated warnings and supported neighbours and colleagues. At the same time, some understood the danger but had limited capacity to undertake measures requiring money, storage space or control over their accommodation. We describe this distance between recognising risk and having realistic options for protection as a ‘feasible preparedness gap’.
This finding directs attention towards the support that can make existing knowledge more useful. A person’s ability to prepare depends partly on the services, relationships and resources available to them. Understanding those circumstances helps practitioners design advice that people can realistically follow.
A complementary insight comes from our research in Rize, Türkiye. Drawing on interviews with 51 officials, experts and others involved in flood-risk management, we developed a framework connecting governance and institutional coordination with education, community action planning and preparedness. Its contribution is to identify how these elements need to work together in practice.
These studies examine different settings, but they inform a common approach: connect people’s knowledge and initiative with reliable institutional support. Their value lies in supporting dialogue and learning across contexts, with attention to what is workable in each place.
Connecting this evidence to COP31
COP31 provides opportunities to strengthen that approach through education and adaptation policy.
The continuing midterm review of the Glasgow work programme on Action for Climate Empowerment brings attention to education, access to information and public participation within climate action. This offers an opportunity to support sustained learning linked to preparedness, with investment in educators and partnerships between schools, communities and public services.
Work under the Global Goal on Adaptation, including the further development of methods for using the Belém Adaptation Indicators, provides a related opportunity to consider how progress is assessed.
The research suggests a useful principle for these discussions: assess whether people can use the opportunities for protection available to them. For a warning system, this means examining whether information is understandable and connected to accessible assistance. For an education programme, it means considering what participants can do afterwards and what support they require.
Funding should reflect these connections. Investment in communication can be accompanied by practical preparedness activities and accessible evacuation arrangements. Community organisations can contribute local knowledge, while public agencies provide the continuity, resources and coordination needed to sustain action.
These are ways to connect international commitments with improvements that people can recognise in their schools and neighbourhoods.
Children and young people as partners
Children’s and young people’s participation belongs within this process. They can help examine whether information makes sense to its intended audience, whether preparedness activities reflect their circumstances and which concerns need further attention.
Their involvement should begin while plans and priorities are still being developed. Institutions should explain how contributions were considered and what will happen next. This gives participants a clearer understanding of their influence and helps organisations learn from the process.
Participation also requires care and practical support. Younger children need suitable methods and trusted adults. Language, disability and financial barriers must be addressed. Indigenous youth should be able to contribute knowledge on terms agreed with their communities.
At COP31, I will moderate ‘Children and Youth at the Frontline of Climate Resilience’, bringing these connections into discussion through community experience, education and climate policy. My aim is to identify practical recommendations and partnerships that participants can take forward after the conference.
The lasting value of these conversations will be found in what they enable: learning that supports preparedness, institutions that respond to community knowledge, and people with greater capacity to protect themselves and one another.