Climate change literacy in Africa

Climate-change literacy varies across Africa

28 February 2022

Greater education and wealth are associated with greater awareness and understanding of human-induced climate change in Africa.

Climate-change literacy — recognizing and understanding the causes of anthropogenic climate change — is a key factor for motivating people to take action on climate change. However, little is known about levels of climate-change literacy across the Global South, particularly in Africa.

To address this, researchers from the University of Cape Town analysed 160 published studies of climate-change literacy, awareness and perception in Africa, and data from the Afrobarometer public-opinion survey of individuals across 33 countries.

They team found that poverty was associated with lower levels of climate-change literacy, whereas people with higher levels of education and mobility, or living in urban areas had greater climate-change literacy. Similarly, those who felt that droughts — but not floods — had been more severe in recent times also had greater awareness of anthropogenic climate change.

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References

1. Nature Climate Change 11, 937–944 (2021). doi: 10.1038/s41558-021-01171-x