Public perceptions of peri-urbanism triggered climate change: Survey evidence from South East Queensland, Australia

Abstract

• Provides insights into the public perception on peri‑urbanisation driven climate change impacts. • Younger and highly educated people are much stronger believers of climate change. • People composting at home have a stronger belief in human-induced climate change. • Self-motivations for shifting habits and taking actions for mitigating climate change are limited. • Government policies and actions for combatting climate crises are largely seen inadequate. Metropolitan cities and regions are vastly exposed to the global climate change impacts. The reasons for such exposure include the gradual urban encroachments to nearby peri‑urban areas that cause destruction of natural resources and ecosystem services. While policymakers and planners are struggling to make trade-offs between urban growth, environmental degradation and mitigating climate change impacts, limited evidence exists regarding the public perceptions on the matter. This study aims to address the question of how does the public perceive on the interplay between peri‑urban growth and climate change? The methodology concerns conducting an online survey with the peri‑urban dwellers ( n = 659) from South East Queensland, Australia, and undertaking an exploratory factor analysis on the collected data. The study findings reveal that: (a) Younger and highly educated people are much stronger believers of climate change; (b) People composting at home have a stronger belief in human-induced climate change than those using solar energy, energy monitoring devices and harvesting rainwater; (c) Despite local impacts of climate change garb the attention of almost everyone, self-motivations towards shifting habits and taking actions for mitigating climate change are limited, and; (d) Government policies and actions for combatting climate crises are largely seen inadequate.