Abstract
<p><span lang="EN-US">To broaden our understanding of global climate change (GCC), this article presents results from an ongoing longitudinal research project that investigates public GCC risk perceptions in nine countries focusing on different perceptions important in policy formulation. A key goal of the study is to understand which nations express similar or different viewpoints with respect to explanatory factors such as threat perceptions, hazard experience, socio-demographics, knowledge of climate change, and other factors found in the environmental hazards literature. Despite many variances in GCC perceptions among the surveyed national populations, the analysis shows that some differences are marginal, while others allow the grouping of countries based on different perception factors. Survey results reveal a high degree of uncertainty with regards to climate change dimensions including risk, science, knowledge, and policy approaches to mitigate GCC.</span></p>
Highlights
To broaden our understanding of global climate change (GCC), this article presents results from an ongoing longitudinal research project that investigates public GCC risk perceptions in nine countries focusing on different perceptions important in policy formulation
Despite many variances in GCC perceptions among the surveyed national populations, the analysis shows that some differences are marginal, while others allow the grouping of countries based on different perception factors
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) first working group concluded in its 2013 assessment report with 95% certainty that human behavior is the principal factor for rapid global climate change (GCC) recorded over the past decades (IPCC, 2013)
Summary
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) first working group concluded in its 2013 assessment report with 95% certainty that human behavior is the principal factor for rapid global climate change (GCC) recorded over the past decades (IPCC, 2013). Public perceptions of climate change have shown widespread responses, high levels of uncertainty, and variation among various cultural groups This variation is not well understood with regard to the level of differences and causes. Wardekker (2004) pointed out that communication efforts relevant to GCC do not acknowledge the importance of risk perceptions, asking how science converges with uncertainties, moral dilemmas, the meaning of risk, as well as various other cultural explanations. These findings highlight the need to improve our understanding of public climate change perceptions. While there is general agreement that the causes of GCC are anthropomorphic, it is uncertain when and how GCC will manifest itself, for example, into drought or abundant rain and flooding
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