Understanding Climate Change Awareness of Undergraduates of University of Delhi

Climate change has turned into a global urgency demanding immediate attention and action from all stakeholders. Universities have a significant role in disseminating knowledge on this critical issue and building up climate change awareness as youth constitute a major force that can tremendously impact our efforts to combat climate change. Not many research studies had been carried out to understand awareness level of undergraduates, especially in India. Therefore, it becomes imperative to understand the climate change awareness level of students as awareness and understanding of the issue leads to behavioral change and transform thoughts into action. This study was an attempt to assess the climate change awareness of undergraduate students enrolled in various colleges of Delhi university and understand the influential factors contributing to their awareness level. An online survey consisting of questionnaire adopting Likert -type scale was conducted using Google Forms. A total of 364 undergraduate volunteers spread across various colleges participated in the study constituting a random population sample. The result indicated that majority of students do perceive climate change and possess high awareness level, however a small fraction of participants is yet to consider climate change a reality. This finding is highly concerning and has valuable implications as for a collective and effective climate action, the factors responsible for this gap needs to be identified and filled.