Environment

GLOBAL safety charity is encouraging more education and awareness raising of the risks posed by climate change, after discovering that 29% of people in Nigeria do not know whether it is a threat to people in their country.

The figures come from the latest edition of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll, and are explored further in its latest report: ‘What the world worries about: global perceptions and experiences of risk and harm’.

The data was collected by global analytics firm Gallup, who conducted 147,000 interviews in 142 countries and territories around the world, and found that some regions, including Nigeria, are home to high levels of uncertainty when it comes to understanding the threat posed by climate change.

In Nigeria, 29% of people said they ‘don’t know’ whether climate change is a threat to people in their country in the next 20 years – the seventh highest proportion globally. This is compared to 18% in 2019 and 30% in 2021.

The proportion of ‘don’t know’ in Central/Western Africa as a whole is 21%, placing Nigeria above the regional average.

In contrast, the latest results show that globally, fewer people now express no opinion on the threat posed by climate change. On a global scale, just 12% say they do not know if climate change is a threat to their country – a significant seven percentage point decline from 19% in 2021 and 18% in 2019. This places Nigeria 17 percentage points above the global average for the proportion of people who are uncertain.

This also means that globally, more people have decided whether or not they view climate change as a threat. While the proportion of people viewing climate change as a ‘very serious’ threat to their country in the next 20 years dipped by two percentage points from 41% to 39%, the proportion who said it is a ‘somewhat serious’ threat increased by seven percentage points (from 26% in 2021 to 33% in 2023). In Nigeria, 32% of people view climate change as a ‘very serious’ threat and 24% of people view it as a ‘somewhat serious’ threat.

Worryingly, the proportion of people globally who do not view climate change as a threat at all to their country in the next 20 years also increased by two percentage points, to 16% in 2023. This is compared to 15% in Nigeria.

In total, almost three-quarters (72%) of the world’s adult population feel at least somewhat threatened by climate change – five percentage points higher than the 67% measured in 2021 and 69% in 2019.

Nancy Hey, Director of Evidence and Insight at Lloyd’s Register Foundation, said:

“Our findings show that the proportion of people globally who appreciate the threat posed by climate change has stayed relatively stable since 2019. What is notable is that fewer people now sit on the fence when it comes to their views on climate change, with a reduction in the proportion who say they ‘don’t know’ if it is a threat. And yet, in countries like Nigeria, the proportion of people with no opinion remains high.

“Many of the world’s most populous countries, such as Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, also feature on this list. While the low levels of awareness in these countries is concerning, it also presents an opportunity. These people are not climate sceptics – reliable, useful information is missing. Targeted information may be key to unlocking action needed to tackle the generational challenge of climate change.”

Professor Wändi Bruine de Bruin, Provost Professor of Public Policy, Psychology, and Behavioural Science at the University of Southern California, said:

“Severe weather events have become more frequent across the world, including in Nigeria. Because of this, it may seem surprising to see that 29% of people in the country said they didn’t know whether climate change is a threat.

“Yet, we’re also seeing that most people in Nigeria worry when it comes to harm from severe weather (64%). This suggests that many may not be seeing the link between climate change and weather change, which could be down to the complex nature of climate change.  And climate change communications often don’t help, because they use scientific language that can be off-putting and hard to understand.

“That’s why my team at the University of Southern California has been working with the United Nations Foundation and the IPCC to find ways to talk about climate change in concrete every-day language. If you want to inform people, you have to stop confusing them with climate jargon.”

The full 2024 World Risk Poll report, ‘What the world worries about: global perceptions and experiences of risk and harm’, can be accessed here. The full data, including country and demographic-specific data, is also available on request.

4th December, 2024.C.E

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