Educational policies across the globe have become increasingly focused on learning about environmental protection and climate change, and many education systems have sought ways to engage young people in sustainable practices that address climate concerns (Wals & Benavot, 2017). According to surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center (2021) young people are more inclined to endorse protection of the environment than older people. These attitudes stem from a combination of demographic, attitudinal, and social factors, as well as broader community influences (Kessler, 2021; Smith & Kingston, 2021; Xie, et al., 2019). Schools are expected to play a key role in educating students about sustainability and environmental responsibility. The learning domains Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Global Citizenship Education (GCED)—central to the United Nation's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development—emphasise that students need the knowledge, skills, and mindset to address environmental issues (United Nations, 2015; UNESCO, 2017). This proposition is supported by findings from TIMSS 2023 (Bookbinder et al., 2025). Using ICCS 2022 data from 18 European countries, this paper explores students' awareness of environmental threats, their attitudes toward environmental issues and European cooperation to protect the environment, as well as their expected participation in environment protection activities and sustainable behaviour. This paper explores how students' backgrounds, school experiences, and other related beliefs are associated with their attitudes to, and engagement with, sustainability efforts and environmental protection. The analyses use correlational analysis as well as multivariate regression models to identify predictors of students’ perceptions and engagement in environment protection activities. Predictors include Individual background variables such as students’ socioeconomic background, and parental interest in political and social issues. Further, it will include school context variables reflecting student reports on having learnt how to protect the environment and environment-friendly practices implemented at their school. Preliminary findings suggest that young people tend to express relatively high levels of awareness about environmental threats, positive attitudes toward environmental protection and European cooperation on this topic, and that most lower secondary students expect to become engaged in environmental protection activities and frequently engage in sustainable behaviour. Multivariate analyses highlight the key role of civic knowledge as a predictor of positive attitudes toward environmental engagement and awareness of environmental threats, while female students also tended to show more concern and more willingness to engage with environment-related activities.

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