Climate change Issues and concerns

Abstract

Understanding public perception of climate change risk and the factors that influence it has been established to be crucial in generating support for climate change response. A number of factors including the experience of extreme weather events have been identified in previous studies as having an influence on public opinions and concerns of climate change. However, little is known of the public risk perception of climate change and its influencing factors in a developing country contexts. This study sought to investigate the risk perception of climate change among residents and the influence of flooding experience in shaping such perceptions using a household survey. Results indicate that, flood -victims showed higher risk perception by being more concerned about climate change than nonvictims. On the other hand, concerns about the impacts of climate change was seen to be the lowest when compared with other current issues the country is facing. The results of this study bring the perspective of a developing country into the knowledge base of climate change risk perception and the influence of extreme weather events