Social Media as A Mechanism for Communicating Climate Change and Sustainability to The Youth in Kenya: A Systematic Literature Review.

Abstract

Climate change remains one of the most pressing global challenges of the twenty-first century, with youth constituting a critical demographic in climate advocacy and sustainability action. In Kenya, social media platforms such as Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), WhatsApp, and TikTok have increasingly become dominant channels for information exchange and civic engagement among young people. This study systematically reviewed existing literature to evaluate how social media platforms facilitate communication of climate change and sustainability issues to Kenyan youth. Guided by the PRISMA framework, peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers, and academic theses published between 2010 and 2025 were retrieved from major scholarly databases and screened using predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Thematic analysis revealed that effective communication strategies include visual storytelling, influencer engagement, localized narratives, and hashtag-driven campaigns. Outcomes associated with social media-based climate communication include increased climate awareness, youth activism, and peer-to-peer knowledge exchange. Nevertheless, challenges such as algorithmic bias, climate misinformation, digital inequality, and limited translation of awareness into sustained environmental action persist. Social media platforms are powerful tools for climate communication but require strengthened digital literacy initiatives and integration with offline sustainability programs to maximize long-term impact.