AN INVESTIGATION INTO PUBLIC ATTITUDES, AWARENESS AND ACTIONS TOWARDS CLIMATE CHANGE.

1. AN INVESTIGATION INTO PUBLIC ATTITUDES, AWARENESS AND ACTIONS TOWARDS CLIMATE CHANGE. MALCOLM MCMILLAN Dissertation submitted (in part) for Bachelor of Science (Honours) Degree in Sustainable Environmental Management. The Scottish Agricultural College and University of Edinburgh.

2. Presentation Overview Rationale; Aims and Objectives; Methodology; Results; Conclusions.

3. Rationale • Reasons for the choice of study topic: • This researcher’s personal interest in people’s attitudes and awareness to environmental issues; • The importance of the public’s role in reducing the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions identified in the Literature review; • The wish to discover current public attitudes, awareness and understanding of climate change; • The significance of attitudes in helping to make the necessary change in lifestyle highlighted by Government agencies.

4. Aims and Objectives The aims of this dissertation project were: Aim A. To investigate awareness of, and attitudes towards, climate change and actions taken to mitigate it: Objective 1.1. Create and distribute a suitable questionnaire. Aim B. Produce original survey data upon which future comparisons can be made: Objective 2.1. Collect questionnaire survey responses and analyse the results. Aim C. To gain an understanding of how important attitudes and awareness are in determining environmentally friendly behaviour: Objective 3.1. Undertake a review of reputable literature on the subject.

5. Methodology • The primary source of data came from a questionnaire survey distributed electronically to the staff of South Ayrshire Council; • The secondary source of information came from a literature review; • The sample size was 1,750; • 444 responses; • Response rate was 25.3%.

6. Results • Chi2 test: • No trend between age and levels of concern about climate change; • No trends between age and levels of action mitigating climate change; • Literature Review: • Awareness is an important contributing factor in determining an individual’s action and attitudes; • In theory, raising awareness of climate change should help increase environmentally friendly behaviour; • In reality this theory is indirect and at best weak; • The more informed the individual is, the more pro-environmentally friendly attitudes they will have, and are therefore more likely to carry out environmentally friendly actions.

7. Results continued. • These results strongly indicate that a large majority of employees of South Ayrshire Council believe they possess a basic or good knowledge of climate change.

8. Results continued. Questions on the causes and effects, there is a gap between perceived knowledge and actual knowledge. Despite this knowledge gap there was evidence of very comprehensive knowledge amongst members of South Ayrshire Council (SAC) staff.

9. Results continued. • Responses from Q.4, “Please list below any effects that climate change is predicted to have on the global environment.”, • Common confusions were apparent; • Example of good knowledge;

10. Results continued. When asked to display how concerned they were about climate change the majority responded with high levels of concern This concern should relate to high levels of action, yet from the results to question 10 it is clear that only a minority take action to alleviate their impact on the environment. This attitude-behaviour gap is documented in socio-psychological literature

11. Results continued. • The results from the attitude section allows assumptions to be made about the attitudes of the majority of SAC employees: • The majority of council employees believe climate change is happening; • The effects of climate change are not over exaggerated; • They think that the government should force people to reduce their emissions; • They believe climate change is too big an issue for individuals to tackle alone; • Not enough steps are in place to tackle climate change; • Unsure if technology can help deal with climate change; • Feel that climate change is everybody’s responsibility; • Believe not enough is being done about climate change.

12. Results continued. • When asked who they felt was responsible for combating climate change, the majority of respondents answered that the International community, the UK government and the individual were most responsible. • They also responded that local councils were the least responsible for combating climate change. • This type of response has been dubbed psychological distancing.

13. Conclusions • Age has no clear influence over levels of concern or levels of action, however a larger sample may have produced more conclusive results; • South Ayrshire Council (SAC) employees believe they have a good knowledge of climate change; • A knowledge gap exists between perceived knowledge of climate change and actual knowledge of climate change amongst the staff of South Ayrshire Council; • A high level of concern exists amongst staff over climate change but this does not result in high levels of personal action; • Positive support for environmental improvement from the staff of SAC.

14. Contact details: Malcolm McMillan E-mail: mameg21@hotmail.co.uk Telephone: 01586 55 42 17