https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3001-4695
Figures
Abstract
Anthropogenic climate change is a serious global environmental issue that threatens food and water security, energy production, and human health and wellbeing, ultimately jeopardizing the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A good understanding of climate change is essential for societies to adapt to or mitigate it. Yet, studies reveal that most people have limited knowledge, misconceptions and misunderstanding about climate change. Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to experience disproportionately higher adverse effects of climate change, but there is paucity of information about climate change knowledge in the region. Here, we assessed climate change knowledge, attitude and perception of undergraduate students in Ghana and the influential factors using a cross-sectional study and semi-structured questionnaire. The study population was full-time undergraduate students at the University of Ghana, Legon. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, logistic regressions, t-test and One-Way ANOVA. The results revealed that a strong majority of the respondents believe that climate change is real and largely human-induced, and they expressed concern about it. Yet, students lack basic knowledge and had some misconceptions about the causes and consequences of climate change. The overall knowledge score of the students on climate change was average (66.9%), although majority (92%) of the respondents claimed they had adequate (75–85%) knowledge of climate change. Our data also showed that respondents’ level of education, programme of study, ethnicity, religion and mother’s occupation had statistically significant association with their knowledge, perception and attitude on aspects of climate change. Our findings highlight knowledge gaps in climate change among undergraduate students in Ghana, underscoring the need to integrate climate change science into the education curricula at all levels of pre-tertiary schools and university for both the science and non-science programme.
Citation: Ofori BY, Ameade EPK, Ohemeng F, Musah Y, Quartey JK, Owusu EH (2023) Climate change knowledge, attitude and perception of undergraduate students in Ghana. PLOS Clim 2(6): e0000215. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000215
Editor: Shah Md Atiqul Haq, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, BANGLADESH
Received: June 6, 2022; Accepted: April 21, 2023; Published: June 7, 2023
Copyright: © 2023 Ofori et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: All the data is included in the manuscript.
Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Introduction
Anthropogenic climate change is one of the major global environmental problems of the 21st century. Climate Change has been defined as a change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties (e.g., temperature, precipitation, humidity, incident radiation, isothermality, wind patterns), and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer [1]. The reality of anthropogenic climate change has been established ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ by leading scientists worldwide. The reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicate the increasing extent and impact of anthropogenic climate change at the planetary scale [2, 3]. According to [3], the global mean surface air temperature of the Earth has increased from 0.3 to about 0.6°C over the past 100 years, and could increase from about 1.4 to 5.8°C over the next 100 years depending on the amounts of greenhouse gases emitted. The global sea level has risen by 1.8 mm annually, while the Arctic sea ice is retreating by 2.7% per decade since 1961 [3].
Although climate change may be caused by natural events such as the Earth’s orbit, volcanic eruptions, meteoroids and asteroids reaching the Earth’s surface [4, 5], accumulating evidence suggests that 21st century climate change is caused by increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere due to human activities [6]. The main greenhouse gases (GHGs) are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) [7, 8]. The socio-economic drivers that increase the concentrations of GHGs in the atmosphere include household energy use, manufacturing, transportation, unsustainable consumption patterns and population growth [5].
Climate change has already impacted and will continue to have negative consequences on all aspect of human life and wellbeing, including food and water supplies, energy production and use, human health, socio-economics, lifestyles, governance, political stability, international trade and migration [9]. Climate change has also had noticeable effects on many natural systems, including marine and terrestrial ecosystems, such as alterations in species the distribution, timing of seasonal biological events (phenology), community composition and biotic interactions as well as increases in invasion of alien species, pests and diseases [10–15]. The adverse impact of climate change on human health and wellbeing, biodiversity and ecosystems threatens the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals [16].
There are two main strategies for addressing the climate change challenge, notably mitigation and adaptation [3]. Mitigation focuses on measures to reduce GHG concentrations of the atmosphere, while adaptation deals with reducing vulnerability to the impacts of climate change by adjusting social, economic and ecological systems [16, 17]. Both mitigation and adaptation measures require political and ethical choices, technical innovations, and changes in people’s lifestyle [18]. Adaptation behaviour is of critical importance to reduce or avoid the negative impacts of climate change, and many studies have examined the factors that motivate individuals to adapt [19].
People’s knowledge and perception of climate change can have far-reaching consequences for their behaviour towards its mitigation [20, 21]. Knowledge has been defined as a highly valued state in which a person is in cognitive contact with reality [22], while perception is the process by which information or stimuli is received and transformed into psychological awareness to construct meaningful experiences of the environment and the world at large [23]. Climate change knowledge therefore is a person’s cognitive contact with the reality or facts about climate change, while climate change perception is how information about the subject is received and transformed into psychological awareness, i.e., how people view and assess climate change in all its facets [24]. The behaviour needed to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change may be strongly influenced by how individuals and communities perceive the risks and impacts of climate change [21]. Therefore, the accuracy of people’s climate change knowledge and perception is of paramount importance for societies to undergo the transformations needed to mitigate and/or adapt to climate change [25, 26]. However, studies show that many people have limited knowledge, misconceptions, and misunderstanding about the causes and impacts of climate change [27–30].
Developing countries, particularly those in sub-Sahara Africa, including Ghana, are projected to experience disproportionately higher adverse effects of climate change because they depend heavily on climate-sensitive economic processes such as agriculture and hydro-electric power, and also have limited resources to respond to these threats [31]. However, the environmental and economic policy agenda of these countries do not feature prominently issues related to climate change [32]. Additionally, there is scant information on climate change knowledge among the general public in sub-Sahara African countries, including Ghana [33, 34]. A recent study revealed that climate change awareness levels in Africa are extremely low, with the proportion of people who have never heard about climate change reaching two-thirds of the adult populations in South Africa and Nigeria [35]. In Ghana, there remain huge gaps in the level of knowledge and awareness of the causes and effects of climate change among the general public [27, 37].
Young people in high schools and university are being positioned as future leaders and will become key persons who can promote public discourse on climate change and help cultivate the ethical choices and lifestyle needed to minimize the carbon footprint within their local communities [36, 37]. It is therefore imperative for them to have a better understanding of climate change. Further, since climate change education is an integral aspect in the sectoral and global approach to mitigating the negative impact of climate change, evaluating the knowledge and perceptions of climate change among university students can highlight the role higher academic institutions are playing to address the climate change challenge.
The present study therefore assessed undergraduate students’ understanding of climate change in Ghana using a cross-sectional study and de novo self-administered semi-structured paper questionnaire. Specifically, we evaluated undergraduate students’ (i) knowledge of climate change and its causes, and how they acquired such knowledge, (ii) their perception and attitude towards actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change and (iii) the respondents’ characteristics that influence their climate change knowledge, attitude and perception. Our findings can be taken into account when promoting climate change education by either including the issue in existing science courses or mounting new programme that focus primarily on climate change science at the pre-university and university levels of education.
Methods
Ethics statement
The ethics committee of the College of Basic and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, granted ethical clearance for this study (ECBAS 047/17-18). Also, the consent of the participant was sought after clearly articulating the purpose of the research to them. The preamble on the questionnaire explained the purpose of the research and stated clearly that completing the questionnaire was indicative of respondents’ consent. To ensure confidentiality, the names and residential status of the respondents were not required.
Study design and setting
We used a cross-sectional sampling design to investigate the climate change knowledge, perception and attitude of undergraduate student at the university of Ghana, Legon. The study was conducted between March and May 2019, at the University of Ghana, Legon main campus. The University of Ghana, Legon was established in 1948, and is the premier university in Ghana. It offers courses leading to diploma, undergraduate, and graduate degrees (MA. MPhil, PhD). The university is structured around a Colleges, Faculties, Institutes/Schools, Departments and Centre of research and learning. The university offers programme in Sciences and Humanities (Arts, Social Sciences, Law and Business). The undergraduate programme are typically for four years. Students enrolled at the university typically would have completed senior high school. Ghana’s educational system consist of seven years basic (primary) education, three years each of junior high and senior high school. Therefore, students enrolling in a tertiary school would have gone through 12 years of pre-tertiary education. At the senior high school, students choose their programme of study and the programme run include General Arts, General Science, Visual Arts, and Business. When they get to university, majority of students continue in their disciplines from the high school.
Participants
The sample population consisted of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year regular undergraduate students at the University of Ghana, Legon main campus. This privileged group of individuals are likely to form the country’s future political, bureaucratic, financial and business elite.
Study tool
We employed a de novo self-administered semi-structured paper questionnaire (S1 Text) in this study. The questionnaire was initially piloted among 25 students to provide face validity and to detect any ambiguities. The final questionnaire, which underwent some few changes was then administered to the students. The questionnaire was divided into four sections to gather data on the sociodemographic characteristics and evaluate the basic, effects, action and source knowledge on climate change of the respondents. Section A was for the collection of data on the respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics (independent variables). Indeed, several socio-demographic factors including gender, age, level of education, program of study, ethnicity, religion, employment status, socioeconomic status, and political ideology have been shown to influence the accuracy of climate change knowledge and perception [38–42]. In this study, we considered gender, ethnicity, religion, level of education, programme of study, and socio-economic status as the independent variables and climate change knowledge, perception and attitude as the dependent variables.
We asked respondents their gender, ethnicity and religion. Gender was a binary question of male or female. Studies in developed and developing countries show that climate change knowledge, perception and concerns vary between males and females, but the findings are largely inconclusive. While some studies found that men are more knowledgeable than women about climate change [43, 44], other studies report that women exhibit greater knowledge and concern about climate change than men [45–47]. It was therefore important to know what the situation is concerning gender and climate change knowledge, attitude and perception in Ghana.
Ethnic affiliation is an important independent variable that explains a wide range of behaviours and orientations [48]. In Ghana, ethnicity is diverse and is mainly based on language as people who speak the same or similar languages see themselves as on group [49]. Ghana has a high degree of linguistic heterogeneity, with over 100 languages and about 50 sub-groups that can be categorized into 10 major language groups, which are largely defined by geographic location [48]. For convenience, these ethnic groups are further grouped into 5 broad categories, notably Akan, Ewe, Ga-Adangbe, Mole-Dagbani and others. The Akans are the largest (45.7%) ethnic group, occupying the southern and middle parts of the country, followed by the Mole-Dagbani (18.5%), who occupy the northern part, the Ewes (12.8%), who predominate in the south-eastern quarter of Ghana and Ga-Dangme (7.1%), who occupy the southern coast of the country. The middle and southern areas are characterized by rain forests. Northern Ghana has only one raining season (May-September), while southern Ghana has two raining seasons (April-July, and September-November).
Ghanaians are very religious and the situational importance of religion in Ghana cannot be overlooked. The Ghanaian outlook on religion is holistic, touching all aspects of lives, including thinking, social life and economic and environmental events [50]. There are three main religions in Ghana, notably Christianity, Islam and Traditional religions. According to the 2010 government census, approximately 71% of the Ghanaian population are Christians, 18% are Muslims, 5% are Traditional believers and 6% belongs to other religious groups or has no religious beliefs. The belief in God or Supreme Being as the controller of all things, including health and wellbeing, socio-economic, political and environmental events and comforter at all times is strongly preached in all religions in Ghana [51]. Therefore, understanding the perception and attitude of Ghanaians towards environmental event such as climate change cannot be dissociated from religion.
We also asked respondents their level of study (1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th year), programme of study (Science or Humanities), household size, and the occupation of their parents, i.e., whether their parents work in the informal sector, formal sector or unemployed/retirees. The level and programme of study can influence the knowledge and perception of undergraduate students in Ghana as shown in studies from other countries [52, 53]. Generally, students pursuing science and environment related programme are more knowledgeable and have a better perception of climate change than those pursuing Humanities programme [52, 53]. Also, the higher the level of education, the more knowledgeable and the better the perception of people about climate change [54, 55]. Therefore, we expected undergraduate student who are in the science programme and those at highest level (i.e., level 400 students) to be more knowledgeable and have better perception and attitude toward climate change.
According to [56, 57], climate change knowledge and perception are associated with socioeconomic status. In both developing and developed countries, people’s perception about their socioeconomic status positively correlates with their environmental concern [57]. Wealthier people tend to have a better knowledge and greater concern about issues related to the environment and climate change than poor people [56]. We used parents’ level of education and employment status as a proxy for their socio-economic status. Parents with tertiary education and employment in the formal sector were considered to have “high socio-economic status, while those with no formal education and were unemployed were considered to have “low socio-economic status”. Household size has also been shown to influence individuals and households action on climate change, with individuals from small household size more likely to have higher mitigation performance and perceived mitigation efforts on climate change [58].
Section B had five questions to assess students’ basic knowledge on climate change, its causes and effects, as well as the sources from which they acquired the information. The questions asked in this section were basic facts about climate change that are unanimously agreed upon by IPCC and climate scientists globally. Section C evaluated the perception (which also mostly measured basic-, effects- and action-related-knowledge) of students about climate change using six questions. Finally, Section D, which had eight questions, evaluated students’ attitude towards climate change adaptation and mitigation. This section thus measured action-related knowledge of climate change and the respondents’ willingness to implement their action-related knowledge about climate change.
Study sample size determination
The sample size for this study was estimated using the online sample size calculator based on the Cochran formula. The population size of the undergraduate students at the time of the study (2019) was 15,167. Therefore, using a 95% confidence level, 4% precision and a worst case scenario of 50% of the respondents choosing the right answers, the minimum recommended sample size was estimated to be 577.
Sampling procedure
Students within the inclusive criteria, i.e., 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th year undergraduates were sampled using the convenience sampling method. The questionnaires were administered to students who were present in the lecture theatre during one of their main core subjects. The questionnaires were self-administered by the students in English and were received after they had completed them. Assuming a 70% return rate, we gave out 824 copies of the paper questionnaires in order to achieve the minimum acceptable sample size of 577.
Study variable measurements
The socio-demographic data were treated as the independent variables, whiles climate change knowledge, perception and attitude scores were considered as the dependent variables. A score of 1 was awarded to a correct (‘True’) answer, while a score of zero was awarded to incorrect (‘False’ or ‘Not Sure’) answer for the knowledge questions, giving a total score of 5 (100%). The respondents were said to have “very good-excellent” knowledge of climate change if they had a score of 90% and above, “adequate” knowledge of climate change if they scored from 75 to 89%, “average” knowledge of climate change if they scored 50 to 74% and “inadequate” or “poor” knowledge on climate change if they scored below 50%. For the perception, choosing ‘Agree’ gives a score of 1, while ‘Disagree’ and ‘Not sure’ attracted a score of 0, with a total score of 6 (100%). The respondents were said to have “very accurate” perception of climate change if they had a score of 90% and above, “accurate” perception of climate change if they scored from 75 to 89%, “fairly accurate” perception of climate change if they scored 50 to 74% and “in accurate” or “poor” perception of climate change if they scored below 50%. The maximum score for the attitude questions was 8 (100%) with a ‘Yes’ answer scoring 1 and a ‘No’ or ‘Not at all’ answer scoring 0. Again, the respondents were said to have “very good-excellent” attitude towards climate change if they had a score of 90% and above, “good” attitude towards climate change if they scored from 75 to 89%, “fairly good” attitude towards climate change if they scored 50 to 74% and “poor” attitude towards climate change if they scored below 50%.
Data analysis
Data obtained from the study was entered into Microsoft Excel and then analyzed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, Version 25) and R software. Frequencies with their percentages in Tables and Charts were used to represent descriptive statistics, while logistic regression, t-test and One-Way ANOVA at a confidence interval of 95% were used to determine the association between the respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics (independent variables) and their knowledge, perception and attitude towards climate change (dependent variables). Statistical significance was assumed when p ≤ 0.05.
Results
Socio-demographic characteristics of respondents
Out of the 824 copies of the paper questionnaires given out to students to complete, 711 were filled out and returned, giving a return rate of 86.3%. After cleaning the data by removing incomplete and inconsistent responses, 620 completed questionnaires were retained for downstream analysis. Most of the respondents were offering programme in the Humanities (53.1%). Also, females (61.3%) and second year students (60%) formed majority of the respondents. Students of the Akan speaking ethnic group (59.7%), followers of the Christianity religion (95.8%) and living in households with between 5 and 7 persons (55.3%) were in the majority (Table 1). Further, 46.8% of the respondents had their fathers working in the formal sectors, but the mothers of the majority (68.9%) of respondents were self-employed. In terms of education, the fathers of majority (56.8%) of the respondents had tertiary education, while 51.3% of the respondents’ mothers had secondary or vocational education (Fig 1).
Self-confessed adequacy of knowledge on climate change
The majority (93.5%) of the respondents claimed they had adequate knowledge about climate change and its causes, while only 6.5% said they were either unsure about their level of knowledge or had inadequate knowledge about climate change.
Sources of knowledge on climate change
School was the most important source of knowledge on climate change for 42.8% of the respondents, followed by radio and television (24.9%) and the internet (13.1%). The print media (7.4%) and other sources (0.6%) were the least common sources of information on climate change for the respondents (Fig 2).
Students’ knowledge on climate change
Emission of Greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere being responsible for climate change (82.6%) and forests’ ability to reduce climate change by decreasing the amount of GHGs in the atmosphere (76.8%), were the top two best answered questions. Students were worst at knowing that carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) are all greenhouse gases (43.9%). The overall knowledge score of the students on climate change was 3.44 out of 5.0 or (68.8%), which is “average” (Fig 3).
Association between socio-demographic characteristics and knowledge on climate change
Male students both in the Science programme and Humanities programme, were more knowledgeable on matters related to climate change than their female counterparts, although the difference was not significant (Overall male: female = 3.51: 3.40, p = 0.64; Science students male: female = 3.67: 3.56, p = 0.41; Humanities students male: female = 3.34: 3.27, p = 0.63). Also, students from the Mole-Dagbani ethnic group showed the highest knowledge about climate change, but this was not statistically significant compared to the other ethnic groups (3.54 vrs 3.27–3.49). Students of the Christian faith scored higher than those of other faiths (3.45 vrs 2.00–3.28) and those from households with more than seven members (3.50 vrs 3.40–3.45) exhibited better knowledge of climate change, but the differences were not statistically significant. The highest educational qualifications of both parents showed no association with the student’s knowledge of climate change, but in both cases, students whose parents had tertiary level of education were more knowledgeable [Mother (3.56 vrs 3.34–3.38); Father (3.49 vrs 3.34–3.37)]. The programme and the level of study of the students had significant associations with their knowledge of climate change issues. Students studying Science-based courses recorded better scores than their Humanities counterparts (3.61 vrs 3.29; p = 0.001), whereas final year students obtained the highest scores (4.37 vrs 3.36–3.57; p = 0.005). Students whose mothers and fathers were employed in the formal sector were more knowledgeable than those whose parents were unemployed or employed in the informal sector, but the difference was not statistically significant (Table 1).
Regarding students’ response to each of the questions posed to assess their knowledge on climate change, the logistic regression analysis showed that gender had no significant influence on their knowledge of aspects of climate change (S1 Table). Also, none of the independent variables considered in this study was significantly associated with the respondents’ knowledge of the definition of climate change (KQ1) and the role trees play in modulating local climate (KQ5). However, the respondents’ programme of study, ethnicity, level of study, and mother’s level of education had significant influence on their knowledge concerning aspects of climate change. For example, the odds ratio (OR) of science students compared to students in the Humanities programme, knowing that emissions of GHGs into the atmosphere is responsible for anthropogenic climate change (KQ2) was 2.91 and this was significant at p-value of 0.001 (n = 534). Students of the Mole-Dagbani ethnic group were more likely to know that emissions of GHGs into the atmosphere is responsible for anthropogenic climate change, compared to students from Ga-Adangbe ethnic group (n = 534, Log odds LO = 1.45, OR = 4.27, p = 0.001). Also, the odds ratio of Level 400 (final year) students compared to Level 100 (first year) and Level 200 (second year) students, knowing that carbon dioxide is the principal greenhouse gas (KQ3) were 1.59 and 1.56, respectively, and these were significant at p-value of 0.05 (n = 533). Moreover, students whose mothers had secondary (n = 532, LO = 0.7, OR = 2.14, p = 0.03) or tertiary education (n = 533, LO = 1.12, Odds ratio = 3.04, p = 0.01), were more likely to know the greenhouse gases (KQ4) than those whose mothers had no formal education or had only primary education (Table 2).
Students’ perception about climate change
The top two best perception about climate change exhibited by the students were about climate change being real (97.9%) and human activities being responsible for the 21st century climate change (96.6%). The least perceived issue related to climate change by the students is on how climate change can increase the incidence of food-borne and water borne diseases, such as diarrhoea (52.9%, Fig 4). The overall score for student’s perception about climate change (mean ± standard deviation) was 5.04 ± 0.996 out of 6.0, which is 85.2%.
Association between socio-demographic characteristics and students’ overall perception about climate change
Overall, students with mothers (5.17 vrs 4.85–5.11, p > 0.05) in formal employment had a better perception of climate change than those with unemployed or informal sectors parents, but the differences were not statistically significant. Also, students whose fathers were unemployed had a better perception of climate change (5.33 vrs 5.05–5.16, p > 0.05) than those father were employed in the formal or informal sector, but the difference was not significant. Students of the Mole Dagbani ethnic group (5.32 vrs 5.02–5.12, p > 0.05) had the best perception of climate change among other ethnic groupings. Also, Christians (5.13 vrs 4.50–4.76, p > 0.05) were better than students of other faiths, but again, the difference was not statistically significant. The male students showed a better, but not significant perception of climate change than their female counterparts (5.12 vrs 5.11, p > 0.05).
Our study revealed that students in science programme had significantly better perception about climate change than students in Humanities (5.28 vrs 4.97; p = 0.001). Also, final year students exhibited the best and statistically significant perception about climate change than those in their 1st, 2nd or 3rd year (5.63 vrs 4.95–5.17; p = 0.001). Students whose mothers attained tertiary level education had a better perception about climate change than those whose mothers had lower level or no education, but the difference was not significant (5.23 vrs 4.99–5.08; p > 0.05, Table 3).
The association between the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents and their perception about aspects of climate change is shown in Table 4 and S2 Table. The respondents’ level of study, household size, fathers’ occupation and fathers’ level of education had no significant influence on their perception towards aspects of climate change (i.e., the individual questions asked). However, their mother’s occupation and level of education significantly influenced their perception on whether anthropogenic climate change is real (PQ1). Students whose mothers were employed in the informal sector (n = 535, Log odds (LO) = 3.77, Odds ratio (OR) = 43.64, p = 0.019) and had tertiary education (n = 535, LO = 3.95, OD = 52.09, p = 0.02), were more likely to accept that climate change is real than those whose mothers were unemployed and only had primary education or no formal education. Also, students whose mothers were employed in the informal sector (n = 535, LO = 3.39, OR = 29.78, p = 0.019) and had tertiary education (n = 535, LO = 2.32, OD = 10.18, p = 0.02), were more likely to accept that human activities are responsible for climate change (PQ2) than those whose mothers were unemployed and had primary education or no formal education. The odds ratio of students who share the Christian faith compared to those of Islam, accepting that human activities are responsible for climate change was 0.06, and this was statistically significant at p-value of 0.01 (Table 4).
Ethnicity influenced students’ perception on whether climate change will affect human health, food security and the environment (PQ3). The odds ratio of students of the Ga-Adangbe ethnic group compared to those of the Ewe ethnicity, believing that climate change will affect human health, food security and the environment was 0.22, and this was significant at p-value of 0.05. Also, the programme of study, ethnicity, and religion were strongly associated with students’ perception on whether climate change will increase the incidence of food- and water-borne diseases (PQ4). The odd ratio of students pursuing science programme compared to humanities students, in accepting that climate change will increase the incidence of food- and water-borne diseases was 2.02, which was significant at p-value of 0.001. Student of the Akan (n = 534, LO = 0.5, OD = 1.69, p = 0.041) and Mole-Dagbani (n = 534, LO = 1.10, OD = 3.01, p = 0.012) ethic groups were more likely to accept that climate change will increase the incidence of food- and water-borne diseases, and so were the students of the Christian faith compared to those of Islam (n = 534, LO = 1.43, OD = 0.24, p = 0.032). Students whose mothers had tertiary education were more likely to believe that climate change will increase the incidence of flooding, fire and drought (PQ5) than those whose mothers had primary education or no formal education (n = 534, LO = 1.27, OR = 3.59, p = 0.007).
More so, respondents’ gender, religion and mother’s level of education was strongly associated with the perception that education can play a key role in mitigating the effects of climate change (PQ6). Males were more likely to agree that education can play a key role in mitigating the effects of climate change (n = 534, LO = 0.89, OR = 2.44, p = 0.011), and were students of the Christian faith (n = 534, LO = 3.45, OR = 0.028, p = 0.037) compared to those of other religion (excluding Islam and Traditional religion), and those whose mother had tertiary education (n = 534, LO = 1.46, OR = 4.29, p = 0.028) compared to students whose mother had no formal education or had primary education (Table 4).
Students’ attitude towards climate change issues
The overall score of the students’ attitude towards climate change issues was 6.12 over 8 or 76.5%. Questions to which students had attitude scores of more than 80% were; willingness to plant trees in order to reduce the impact of climate change (92.4%), preparedness to learn a lot more about climate change (86.7%) and being happy to reduce energy use in order to decrease the impacts of climate change (82.6%). Areas with attitude scores of less than 70% include willingness to join any climate change advocacy group (69.7%), willingness to take a climate change course as a free elective (65.8%) and readiness to use public transport in order to reduce the impacts of climate change (63.4%, Fig 5).
Association between socio-demographic characteristics and students’ attitude towards climate change issues
Overall, male students had a better attitude than their female counterparts (6.19 vrs 6.08, p > 0.05), but the difference was not statistically significant. Students of Mole-Dagbani ethnic origin had the best attitude towards climate change (6.22 vrs 5.78–6.21). Followers of the Christian faith had a significantly better attitude towards climate change issues than students of other faiths (6.15 vrs 3.25–5.95. p = 0.016). Occupation of parents of respondents had significant association with students’ attitudes towards climate change. Students with mothers in informal occupation had a significantly better attitude that those whose mothers were employed in the formal sector or were unemployed (6.20 vrs 5.25–6.08; p = 0.005). In contrast, students whose fathers were unemployed showed significantly better attitude than those whose fathers were employed either in the formal or informal sectors (6.50 vrs 6.08–6.17; p = 0.023). Respondents whose mothers (6.23 vrs 5.92–6.04, p > 0.05) and fathers (6.17 vrs 5.84–6.13, p > 0.05) had secondary/vocational education had the best attitude, but the differences were not significant. The level of education, i.e., either in first year, second year, third year or fourth year of study, did not have any significant influence on the respondents’ attitude towards climate change, although students in their final year of study had the best attitude scores (6.96 vrs 5.79–6.19, p > 0.05) (Table 5).
In terms of the individual questions posed to evaluate students’ attitude towards climate change, the logistic regression analysis showed that the programme of study, household size, fathers’ level of education, fathers’ occupation and mothers’ level of education showed no significant association with the students’ response (S3 Table). However, the respondents’ gender, religion, ethnicity, level of study and mothers’ occupation significantly influenced their attitude towards aspects of climate change mitigation measures (Table 6). For example, students whose mothers were employed in the formal sector (n = 532, LO = 2.23, OR = 9.29, p = 0.01) and informal sector (n = 532, LO = 2.16, OR = 7.14, p = 0.01) were more willing to learn more about climate change (AQ1) than those whose mothers were unemployed. Also, male students were more in agreement than females (n = 533, LO = 0.49, that the study of climate change should be made mandatory for undergraduate students (AQ3). The religious affiliations and level of study of the respondents significantly influenced their willingness to join climate change advocacy groups (AQ4), with Christians more willing to join such groups compared to those of the Islamic faith (n = 532, LO = 1.15, OR = 0.32, p = 0.04). First year students were also less willing to join climate change advocacy groups than final year students (n = 532, LO = 1.6, OR = 0.2, p = 0.02).
Female students (n = 534, LO = 0.9, OR = 0.41, p = 0.04) and students of the Ewe ethnic group compared to those of the Ga-Adangbe ethnicity (n = 534, LO = 3.01, OR = 20.2, p = 0.02), were more willing to plant trees to modulate the local climate. Also, students of the Akan, Ewe and Mole-Dagbani ethnic groups, compared to Ga-Adangbe students, were more willing to pay for cleaner source of energy in order to reduce their carbon footprint (Akan: n = 534, LO = 0.9, OR = 2.49, p < 0.001; Ewe: n = 534, LO = 0.94, OR = 2.57, p = 0.02; Mole-Dagbani: n = 534, LO = 1.03, OR = 2.79, p = 0.05). So also were students in their final year compared to those in their third year of study (n = 534, LO = 2.43, OR = 0.09, p = 0.03), as well as students whose mothers were employed compared to those whose mothers were unemployed (mothers employed in the formal sector: n = 534, Lo = 2.0, OR = 7.42, p = 0.02; mothers employed in the informal sector: n = 534, LO = 1.98, OR = 7.22, p = 0.01, Table 6).
Discussion
Self-confessed and actual adequacy of climate change knowledge
Over the last two decades a vast body of literature has emerged that highlights how human activities since the industrial revolution has significantly altered global climate systems. Although the issue of climate change has recently received high publicity globally, many people still have inadequate knowledge and misconceptions about the subject. A better understanding of the causes and consequences of climate change is required for citizens to participation in the democratic discourse concerning this all-important environmental issue [27, 45]. When individuals and communities are well-informed about climate change issues, they can positively contribute to the development of their communities by adopting climate smart behaviours and practices [21]. Consequently, inadequate knowledge and misunderstanding about climate change could be a major barrier to its mitigation and adaptation [46].
The present study evaluated the knowledge, perception and attitude of climate change of undergraduate students in the University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana. Our data revealed that overall, undergraduate students in the University of Ghana had average (66.9%) knowledge about climate change and its causes, albeit majority (92%) of the respondents self-confessing that they have adequate (75–89%) knowledge of climate change. Interestingly, but disappointingly, only 41.5% of the respondents knew that carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) are all greenhouse gases. Also, as high as 34% of the respondents were not aware that CO2 is the principal greenhouse gas. Although majority (≥ 95%) of the respondents expressed concern about climate change, more than half (52%) of the respondents did not believe that climate change can increase the incidence of food and water borne diseases such as diarrhoea. These clearly underscore their lack of accurate basic knowledge and understanding of the causes and effects of climate change on human health and wellbeing. The over-exaggeration of their self-confessed climate change knowledge can have detrimental implications on their behaviour and actions to addressing the challenge of climate change.
These findings are in agreement with the outcome of other studies, for instance, it has been found that 40% of college students in their sample group were unaware that CO2 is a greenhouse gas [59]. Similarly, [60] found that 35% of college students did not recognize carbon dioxide as a greenhouse. Also, [61] found that only 29.08% of university student who are prospective primary teachers correctly named carbon dioxide as the main greenhouse gas, and only few could name other greenhouse gases such as methane, water vapor, or CFCs. In their study of Middle school student’s perception of climate change at Boyolali District, Indonesia, [62] noted that over 50% of the respondents did not know greenhouse gases and only 43% knew that carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapour are greenhouse gases. [34] noted that a high percentage of the Ghanaian public did not have a clear understanding of climate change.
High school was the most important source of climate change education for 50% of the respondents in the present study, followed by radio and television (24.8%) and the internet (13.1%). Indeed, society’s knowledge and opinions of climate change feed on information from school and various media sources. The information about climate change that is given in schools originates from the field of science and is therefore more credible. However, the information from various media platforms may not originate from the field of science and therefore may be inaccurate [46]. Given that school was the most important source of climate change education for the majority of the respondent, we expected that their climate change knowledge will be at least adequate, but this was not so. This suggests that the climate change education at the pre-tertiary level is either inadequate or not effectively taught. In fact, a study evaluating the role of selected science curricula in climate change education of pre-tertiary education in Ghana revealed that the curriculum for primary, Grades 1 to 3 (age = 6–9 years) and integrated science curriculum of primary, Grades 4 to 6 (age = 9–12 years) had no climate change content [63]. Only the integrated science syllabuses of the junior and senior high schools had climate change content [63]. The study also claimed that the teaching and learning methods for climate change were inadequate and ineffective [63]. Indeed, a recent study by [64] showed lack of basic knowledge and understanding of climate change even at the teacher trainee level. The teacher trainees are individuals being trained at the Training Colleges to equip them to teach at the pre-tertiary level in Ghana. This situation may not be peculiar to Ghana, as pre-tertiary teachers’ misconceptions and inadequate knowledge about climate change have been revealed by studies from other countries [61, 65, 66].
Climate change knowledge, perception, attitude, and their influential factors
In terms of the association between demographic factors and climate change knowledge, attitude and perception, respondents who were of the Christian faith and those from households with 5 to 7 members had better knowledge, attitude and perception about climate change. This observation could be an artifact of sampling because these categories were in the majority. For instance, Christians formed 94.4% of the respondents, while those from households with five to seven members formed 54.8%. Although males (40.8%), Science students (38.2%), final year students (4.5%) and respondents from the Mole Dagbani (6.8%) and Ewe (13.7%) ethnic groups were in the minority, they had better knowledge, attitude and perception about climate change.
Gender has been recognized as an important predictor of climate change knowledge and perception [27]. Indeed, many studies have demonstrated the variation of perception about environmental issues and climate change between men and women, with men exhibiting more accurate knowledge and perception about climate change than women [43, 44]. In general, most women expressed lesser confidence in their science and math abilities and tend to underestimate their climate change knowledge [38]. Yet, in many countries women hold stronger attitudes, tend to be more concerned and engage more in environmental issues and climate change than men [40, 57, 59, 60]. In developed countries such as USA, UK and Germany, women conveyed greater knowledge and concern about climate change than men [61, 67]. A recent global study suggested that in wealthier industrialized countries, women tend to be more concerned about climate change [63]. However, in Ethiopia, a developing country in East Africa, a higher percentage of women were more aware of climate changes [68]. Thus, our data and the global literature suggest that the factors driving gender inequalities in climate change knowledge and perception are complex and multifaceted.
We found that the programme of study (Science or Humanities) and level of educational (Level 100, 200, 300, or 400) influenced the accuracy of climate change knowledge and perception. As expected, students pursuing science programme and final year students were more knowledgeable about climate change. Students pursuing Humanity/Arts programme may be apathetic about science and its related disciplines, such as climate change. Also, the course content of most of the subjects taught in the Humanities may not have much climate change content. Indeed, an analysis of the content of undergraduate programme in the University of Ghana revealed that there is very limited climate change courses even in the science programme [52]. For example, there was no environmental and climate change related content in the courses taught at the Business, Law, Arts, Agriculture and Consumer Science, Allied and Health Sciences programme. Only 10 and 13 courses in the Social Sciences and Basic and Applied Sciences, respectively, had environmental and climate change related content. These findings are in agreement with the outcome of other studies from across the world, showing that students with a science background are more likely to have a better understanding of climate change. For instance, [69] found that among Nigerian university graduates, students pursuing environmental sciences had more class experience on climate change than those in other disciplines. A study at a South African university found that science and agriculture students had a better understanding of climate change than health science students [36]. In the United States, science, agriculture, and natural resources teachers had a deeper understanding of climate change than engineering, business, and management teachers [61].
The level of education has also been identified as one of the most important predictors of people’s awareness about climate change [27, 54, 55]. Consequently, it was not surprising that the final year students had a better knowledge, attitude and perception about climate change. The fact that the final year students had a better understanding of climate change suggested that the climate change content of the undergraduate programme is little, and are mostly taught during the final year. Indeed, an analysis of the content of undergraduate programme in the University of Ghana revealed that there is very limited climate change courses even in the science programme [52].
It was interesting to note that the respondents from the Mole Dagbani ethnic group had a better knowledge, attitude, and perception about climate change, even though they were in the minority. Indeed, recent studies show that personal experience play a role in the knowledge, attitude and perception of climate change [55]. People with a long history of interaction with their environment, have developed intricate and complex systems of first-hand knowledge of the weather, climate change and climate variability. The climate where the Mole-Dagbani ethnic resides in the most arid and vulnerable to climate change. These people are mostly yam, cereals, vegetable, and livestock farmers and currently experiencing unprecedented prolong dry season and short rainy season which are impacting negatively on their water bodies, farming, and socio-economic systems. Also, because the northern part of Ghana is the most vulnerable to climate change, most of the NGOs involved in climate change and adaptation education and awareness creation are based in communities in northern Ghana and their work seems to be having a positive impact on the climate change knowledge, attitude, and perception of the local people.
Our data suggested that respondents from high socio-economic background (parents had tertiary education and were employed in the formal sector) had a better knowledge and perception about climate change than those from low socio-economic background (parents had no formal education and were unemployed). This supports the proposition that knowledge about climate change is associated with socioeconomic status and that wealthier people have a better knowledge and greater concern about issues related to the environment [57]. In both less developed and developed countries, people’s perception about their socioeconomic status positively correlates with environmental concern [56]. Among European populations, [57] found that climate change denial and uncertainty are more common in individuals who feel insecure about their economic future, and in more rural and less prosperous regions. Also, [70] found that in Lao People’s Democratic Republic households, participants’ knowledge about climate change was significantly associated with their socioeconomic status.
Conclusion and recommendations
Our study contributes to the scant literature on climate change knowledge and perception in sub-Saharan Africa. More importantly, it highlights the knowledge gaps in climate change science among undergraduate students in the University of Ghana, Legon. Our findings have broader implications for further research and policy recommendations. Given that climate change education is an essential element in the global approach to solving the climate change challenge, our findings underscore the urgent need to intensify climate change education and awareness creation among undergraduate students in Ghana and the Ghanaian public at large. We call on the Ministry of Education of Ghana to take steps to integrate climate change science into the primary, high school and university education curricula for both science and non-science programme. The teaching and learning of climate change in the schools should be participatory, interdisciplinary, creative, and affect-driven.
Teachers should be well trained in climate science and during the teaching and learning process, they should highlight the causal linkages between climate change and the little things that the students do on a daily basis. Various environment-related student clubs should include climate change in their discourse and where such clubs are non-existent, their establishment should be encouraged. Climate change-related organisations are also encouraged to increase their public engagement, especially in schools. Community education should involve partnerships between various public and private stakeholders, such as the local councils, universities, NGOs, resource management bodies and community groups. The mass media has been shown to have strong effect on people’s perception and attitudes towards climate change, and could play a pivotal role in climate change education and awareness creation in Ghana.
This is study used a cross-sectional approach and therefore suffered from the limitations of a cross-sectional study. Although our findings are only statistically representative for the selected students, we assumed that the participants are qualitatively representative of the larger undergraduate students in Ghana. We made wider inferences based on this assumption, which may not necessarily be so. Given that the participants in this study may not be qualitatively representative of the larger undergraduate students in Ghana, further studies should be conducted across many of the countries universities in order to get a better picture of the climate change knowledge, perception and attitude of undergraduate students in Ghana.
Supporting information
S1 Text. Questionnaire on climate change knowledge, perception and attitude of undergraduate students.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000215.s001
(DOCX)
S1 Table. Association between the sociodemographic characteristics of the students and their knowledge of each of the climate change questions KQ1-KQ5 posed (n = sample size).
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000215.s002
(DOCX)
S2 Table. Association between the sociodemographic characteristics of the students and their perception towards each of the climate change questions PQ1-PQ6 posed (n = sample size).
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000215.s003
(DOCX)
S3 Table. Association between the sociodemographic characteristics of the students and their attitude towards each of the climate change questions AQ1-AQ8 posed (n = sample size).
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000215.s004
(DOCX)
Acknowledgments
We wish to acknowledge all the lecturers who gave us part of their lecture time to distribute the questionnaires to the students. We also thank all the research assistants who supported this research, particularly John Bosu Mensah and Hellen Sedem Addom.
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