Predictors of public climate change awareness and risk perception around the world

Abstract

Climate change is a threat to human societies and natural ecosystems, yet public opinion research finds that public awareness and concern vary greatly. Here, using an unprecedented survey of 119 countries, we determine the relative influence of socio-demographic characteristics, geography, perceived well-being, and beliefs on public climate change awareness and risk perceptions at national scales. Worldwide, educational attainment is the single strongest predictor of climate change awareness. Understanding the anthropogenic cause of climate change is the strongest predictor of climate change risk perceptions, particularly in Latin America and Europe, whereas perception of local temperature change is the strongest predictor in many African and Asian countries. However, other key factors associated with public awareness and risk perceptions highlight the need to develop tailored climate communication strategies for individual nations. The results suggest that improving basic education, climate literacy, and public understanding of the local dimensions of climate change are vital to public engagement and support for climate action.

The relative importance of subjective and structural factors for individual adaptation to climate change by forest owners in Sweden

“…In the case of education, some research has suggested that high level of educational attainment at least in developing countries improves climate awareness (Lee et al 2015). Research in developed countries, however, has pointed out that the more educated individuals are, the more they prefer to rely on their own interpretation and political worldviews rather than established climate science to form their opinion about climate change (Stoknes 2014).…”

Forecasting societies' adaptive capacities through a demographic metabolism model

“…With respect to adaptation to the changing climate, education is indeed highly relevant since individuals with higher level of education are also more likely to have better awareness of climate risk 84 . Given that climate change is a relatively new form of risk and a rather sophisticated scientific subject, education facilitates the understanding of new ideas and concepts related to climate variability.…”

Climate Changes In Non-Formal Educational Activities - A Multidisciplinary Approach

“…But there are also other opinions: according to a Pew study (Stokes et al, 2015), an important amount of people was not really concerned that climate change would hurt them; moreover, Yale University researchers (Lee et al, 2015) recently found that 40% of adults worldwide have never heard of climate change! The Yale study concluded that "educational attainment tends to be the single strongest predictor of public awareness of climate change".…”