Exploring east African climate change risk perceptions to inform effective climate services

Abstract

A better understanding of the decision context within which climate services are used is likely to be central to designing user-relevant climate services for adaptation action. As climate change presents a risk, one entry point to better understand the decision context is through an exploration of the perceptions of climate change risk. How risky climate change is perceived to be will influence whether action is taken on climate change, what decisions are made and the types of information that are used when taking action, providing valuable insights into the decision-context. This study quantifies and explores climate change risk perceptions, and its determinants, amongst policy decision influencers in east Africa. Climate change risk perceptions are found to be heightened, driven by observance of social norms, perceptions of climate change as a proximal risk, frequent experience of extreme weather events and a predominantly self-transcending (outward looking) value system among policy decision influencers. By drawing on known principles from environmental psychology, the study’s results lead to a set of suggestions about how currently available climate services could be aligned to the east African decision context to better encourage uptake and action.