For climate change mitigation efforts to be successful, societies must undergo not only a technological but also a socio-cultural transformation (Figueres and Rivett-Carnac 2020) in which the arts are increasingly considered to play a role (Bentz and O’Brien 2019; Ribac and Harkins 2020). Despite a long tradition of music in environmental activism (Pedelty 2012), so far, environmental concerns have largely been absent from debates in music education (Shevock 2020). What can a climate-conscious music education learn from musical climate activism and artivism?

Drawing from the author’s experience in both music education and climate activism, and building on eco-literate music pedagogy (Shevock 2018) and activist music education (Hess 2019), the paper suggests several lessons for schools, higher education and community music to be drawn from climate activism and ecomusicology (Allen and Dawe 2016). Examples from the author’s educational practice include practicing climate-activist music education as place-based music education (Matsunobu 2018); using soundscape approaches (Murray Shafer 1977) in the music classroom and addressing climate change as an intersectional justice question; as well as the using the potential of popular music to explore emotions (DeNora 2000) and shape socio-climatic imaginaries (Milkoreit 2017) as collective imaginations of the future that can support deliberation and decision-making in the present