China faces intensifying climate risks while also remaining central to global emissions trajectories. Over the past two decades, China has built a dense national policy architecture linking climate governance, 'ecological civilization,' carbon peaking and carbon neutrality targets, and education reform. Climate change education (CCE) is largely advanced through the integration of climate-related concepts into existing subjects (notably geography and science), citizen 'code of conduct' initiatives, and a rapidly expanding agenda to train carbon peak/carbon-neutrality talent in higher education and vocational education. This article synthesizes (1) national policy and institutional arrangements for climate change communication and education and (2) evidence from 38 peer-reviewed empirical studies published between 2008 and 2026 on educational outcomes, misconceptions, pedagogical approaches, and equity patterns in China. Using a systems perspective that distinguishes first-order effects (how climate hazards disrupt educational opportunity and learning conditions) from second-order effects (how education shapes mitigation, adaptation, and just transitions), we find that China's centralized system has been effective at establishing broad awareness and concern, but persistent scientific misconceptions, textbook-driven pedagogy, a sizable knowledge-to-behavior gap, fragmented curriculum integration, and urban-rural disparities in teacher capacity constrain deeper learning and sustained action. Intervention evidence suggests that interactive and experiential approaches (project-based learning, activity-based learning, peer inquiry, and carefully scaffolded socio-emotional engagement) outperform traditional approaches; conversely, fear-based emotional stimuli can undermine mitigation behavior. We argue that closing China's climate-learning gap requires policy coherence across curriculum, assessment, teacher development, and community action infrastructures, with explicit attention to rural capacity building and to integrating civic and policy literacy with scientific literacy.
