Climate Change Literacy among Postgraduate Students of Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

Abstract

The primary objective of environmental education is believed to be developing environmental literacy. The environmentally literate person is described as a person who possesses the values, attitudes and skills that enable knowledge to be converted into action. This study was aimed at assessing the level of climate change literacy among graduate students in four programmes at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. To this end, a questionnaire was developed and administered to a total of 91 students. An attempt was made to include all the major conceptual and geographical aspects of climate change literacy. Results indicate that the students who participated in the study demonstrated a ‘just above average’ performance on the whole, but clearly poor performance in some of the key areas related to the science behind climate change, past trends in rainfall and temperature and the impact of climate change on Africa. It is particularly worrisome that many of the students had inadequate or no information about the projected or actual impacts of climate change on poor countries, including those in Africa. Students’ awareness about some of the key measures proposed at the global level is also inadequate. It is therefore strongly recommended that follow-up studies be conducted to see the effects of such factors on programme syllabi, teaching approaches used, key sources of information, etc., and on students’ climate change literacy.