Ethnic group differences in perceptions of climate change, adaptive behaviours and vulnerability in central and southern China

Abstract

Background/Aim: Limited empirical climate change research has been focused on ethnic minority groups, especially in China. Our study aims to provide more evidence to assist policy making to reduce the health impacts from climate change in Chinese ethnic minority population through understanding their perceptions, adaptive behaviours, vulnerability as well as contributing factors.Methods: Cross-sectional surveys were conducted in 2018-2019 in selected ethnic minority regions in four provinces (Hubei, Yunan, Chongqing and Hainan) in central and southern China. We used multilevel sampling to collect data from four ethnic minority groups (Naxi, Li, Tujia, Miao) and Han group in the study regions. We performed descriptive analyses of characteristics of the participants, univariate comparison between ethnic minority groups and Han group, and multivariate logistic regression models to estimate adjusted Odds Ratios (OR) of influencing factors for climate change understanding, adoption of adaptive behaviours and vulnerability, adjusting for confounders.Results: A total of 3,052 participants were included with a mean age of 47.0 and 64% were male. Compared with Han group, all ethnic minority groups had a significantly lower level of climate change understanding, but a higher proportion of perceived increase in local extreme weather events, and more self-reported symptoms during heat. Ethnic minorities were less likely to take adaptive behaviours and the most acceptable adaptations varied across groups. Ethnic minority (OR=11.51,6.13-21.62), 60 and older (OR=1.07, 1.04-1.10), poor health status (OR=9.35, 4.26-20.50), no self-reported poverty (OR=0.31, 0.15-0.62), and taking adaptive actions in advance (OR=0.03, 0.01-0.09) could significantly affect the vulnerability.Conclusions: Our study has proved a higher level of vulnerability to climate change among the ethnic minority groups compared with Han group in central and southern China. Findings have significant implications for policy development to reduce health inequity by increasing the resilience to future risks from climate change and extreme weathers among ethnic minorities.