PUBLIC PERCEPTION AND AWARENESS ON CLIMATE CHANGES AND THE IMPORTANCE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

Serbia, as a developing country and EU accession country, faces many challenges. One of the key areas identified as the most complicated problem in the negotiation process is the issues of environmental protection and improvement, including the energy sector. Since population in Serbia is concerned because of poor living standards, high unemployment rate, and other social issues it could be questioned what is their concern and awareness about climate change since it is a realistic and visible phenomenon that is hard for someone to ignore and neglect. This paper presents some of the results of a survey conducted among adults in rural and urban parts of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina on their perception, awareness, and knowledge about climate change issues. The research/survey also examined the specific actions that respondents would take as a personal contribution to mitigating the effects of climate problems. The results indicate that respondents have a high awareness of climate change, but the knowledge on climate change is relatively low even though the respondents graduated from faculty (about 52%).