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

Nature Climate Change volume 5, pages 1014–1020 (2015)Cite this article

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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.

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Figure 1: Geographic patterns of global climate change perceptions opinion poll.
Figure 2: Classification tree models for predicting climate change perceptions.
Figure 3: Top-ranked predictors of climate change perceptions worldwide.
Figure 4: Ordination of important predictors of climate change perceptions worldwide.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by the Earth Institute Fellows Program, Columbia University and the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication (T.M.L.). The authors wish to thank A. Pugliese (Gallup World Poll) for assistance with the survey data and D. Budescu (Fordham University) for comments on the manuscript.

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  1. Tien Ming Lee

    Present address: Present address: Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy, Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, Earth Institute, Evolution and Environmental Biology, and Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA

    Tien Ming Lee

  2. Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA

    Tien Ming Lee, Peter D. Howe, Chia-Ying Ko & Anthony A. Leiserowitz

  3. Earth Institute and Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA

    Ezra M. Markowitz

  4. Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA

    Ezra M. Markowitz

  5. Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA

    Ezra M. Markowitz

  6. Department of Environment and Society, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322, USA

    Peter D. Howe

  7. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA

    Chia-Ying Ko

  8. Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan

    Chia-Ying Ko

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Contributions

T.M.L., E.M.M. and A.A.L. designed the research, T.M.L. conducted the analysis. T.M.L. wrote the initial draft with inputs from E.M.M., P.D.H., C.-Y.K. and A.A.L.

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Correspondence to Tien Ming Lee or Anthony A. Leiserowitz.

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Lee, T., Markowitz, E., Howe, P. et al. Predictors of public climate change awareness and risk perception around the world. Nature Clim Change 5, 1014–1020 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2728

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