Climate change literacy in Africa

Simpson, Nicholas P.; Andrews, Talbot M.; Krönke, Matthias; Lennard, Christopher; Odoulami, Romaric C.; Ouweneel, Birgitt; Steynor, Anna; Trisos, Christopher H.

doi:10.1038/s41558-021-01171-x

Cited by 65 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…Yet, for engagement with climate science, such concerns present a fundamental dilemma on promoting things that the public (who play many roles in society) should or should not do. Nonetheless, as more recent studies note (Simpson et al 2021), and we assert based on our findings, understanding anthropogenic causes of climate change is vital to increase climate change literacy (Kelly et al 2022) and build adaptive capacity to respond to climate change (Barnes et al 2020, Murunga 2021). However, to support public agency to act, researchers and practitioners must focus on strengthening the interplay between education (tailored to improving understanding), communication (focused on social influence and learning), and individual perceptions of risks (linking to the transaction cost of action and inaction) associated with climate change.…”

Section: Develop Capacity For Meaningful Dialoguesupporting

confidence: 61%

More than just information: what does the public want to know about climate change?

Murunga¹,

Pecl²,

Ogier³

et al. 2022

E&S

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Public engagement on climate change is a vital concern for both science and society. Despite more people engaging with climate change science today, there remains a high-level contestation in the public sphere regarding scientific credibility and identifying information needs, interests, and concerns of the non-technical public. In this paper, we present our response to these challenges by describing the use of a novel "public-powered" approach to engaging the public through submitting questions of interest about climate change to climate researchers before a planned engagement activity. Employing thematic content analysis on the submitted questions, we describe how those people we engaged with are curious about understanding climate change science, including mitigating related risks and threats by adopting specific actions. We assert that by inviting the public to submit their questions of interest to researchers before an engagement activity, this step can inform why and transform how actors engage in reflexive dialogue.

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Section: Develop Capacity For Meaningful Dialoguesupporting

confidence: 61%

More than just information: what does the public want to know about climate change?

Murunga¹,

Pecl²,

Ogier³

et al. 2022

E&S

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“…Beliefs or feelings about climate change more readily translate to pro-environmental action among privileged groups, such as people with high socioeconomic status (Eom et al, 2018). In many parts of the world, particularly in countries of the Global South, people may be unable to engage in climate action due to having insufficient knowledge, facing financial or political barriers, or simply lacking opportunities (Deane, 2009;González-Hernández et al, 2019;Seth, 2021;Simpson et al, 2021).…”

Section: Negative Climate-related Emotions As Predictors Of Pro-environmental Action and Wellbeingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate anxiety, pro-environmental action and wellbeing: antecedents and outcomes of negative emotional responses to climate change in 28 countries

Ogunbode¹

2022

Preprint

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This study explored the antecedents and outcomes of negative emotional responses to climate change among people from a diverse range of cultural and national contexts. We analysed cross-sectional data gathered in 28 countries (N = 10,963). Our results show that negative emotional responses to climate change are positively related to the amount of attention people pay to climate change information, rates of exposure to information about climate change impacts, and perceived social expectations regarding emotional responding to climate change. Negative climate-related emotions were also positively related to pro-environmental behaviours and inversely associated with mental wellbeing. Notably, while negative climate-related emotions had a significant inverse association with mental wellbeing in all 28 countries, they only had a significant positive association with pro-environmental behaviour (46%) and environmental activism (25%) in a minority of countries. Our findings highlight the broad international significance of negative climate-related emotions as a plausible threat to mental wellbeing.

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“…Societal adaptation has the potential to decrease global climate risk substantially, but cannot fully prevent residual risks from increasing Magnan et al (2021). In addition, poverty decreases CC literacy across the global South Simpson et al (2021), and CC literacy rates among wetland communities might need to be improved in order to hope for a reversal of at least CC's anthropogenic causes. However, in the rural world, the preconditions for designing strategies with greater transformative potential must include land titling, access to markets and credit, climate information, and ecosystem conservation zonings and guidelines Milhorance et al (2021).…”

Section: Combined Effects Of Mma CC and Covid-19 On Livelihoodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Influence of the Interaction of Climate Change, Manmade Threats and COVID-19 on the Livelihoods of Wetland Communities in Sub-Saharan Africa

Amoussou¹,

Edewor²,

Wane³

et al. 2022

JSD

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Wetlands are very important because of the wide range of ecosystem services they provide. Despite their ecological, social and environmental importance, these ecosystems are threatened and fragmented under the combined effects of climate change (CC) and man-made activities (MMA). Such a state of things could be exacerbated by the advent of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with its many implications. In order to help decision-makers take good decisions, the combined effect of CC, MMA and COVID-19 on the livelihoods of communities around wetland ecosystems have been reviewed based on available scientific knowledge. First, we analyzed the different concepts and theories underlying the wetlands-related studies and then summarized the merits and demerits of the different methodologies underlying wetland studies. The empirical evidences that exist in previous literatures have been highlighted. Similarly, common livelihood strategies for wetland communities in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have been highlighted. The diversity of wetlands’ functions and services makes them a source of livelihood, food security and poverty alleviation for riverside communities. However, these communities lack the knowledge and awareness to understand the impact of their activities and CC on their livelihoods. The review also helped to identify that, out of the three factors investigated, the livelihoods of rural wetland dwellers in SSA are mostly influenced by CC and MMA. However, climate change and COVID-19 remain life-altering transboundary threats that extend in space and time, with large uncertainties on wetlands communities livelihoods.

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Climate change literacy in Africa

Cited by 65 publications

References 90 publications

More than just information: what does the public want to know about climate change?

More than just information: what does the public want to know about climate change?

Climate anxiety, pro-environmental action and wellbeing: antecedents and outcomes of negative emotional responses to climate change in 28 countries

Exploring the Influence of the Interaction of Climate Change, Manmade Threats and COVID-19 on the Livelihoods of Wetland Communities in Sub-Saharan Africa

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