A new study by researchers from the University of Cape Town and the University of Connecticut (UConn) found that education is crucial to increase climate change literacy across Africa.

The study across 33 African countries found varying levels of national climate change literacy but that the average literacy rate in Africa is only 37%.  

The climate change literacy rate in Mauritius is 66% and 62% in Uganda, but only 25% in Mozambique and 23% in Tunisia.

African Climate and Development Initiative Dr Nick Simpson said of the 394 subnational regions surveyed, 8% (37 regions in 16 countries) have a climate change literacy rate lower than 20%, while only 2% (8 regions) score higher than 80%.

Co-author from UConn Dr Talbot Andrews said the findings also pointed to higher climate change literacy rates among men, which are on average 13% higher when compared with women.

“These are concerning findings given that multiple socioeconomic and cultural factors mean women are often more vulnerable to adverse climate impacts on their health and livelihoods, and have more limited resources to adapt, than men,” Andrews added.

Simpson said the climate has already warmed by 1.1 °C, adding that people can better safeguard their futures by anticipating future climate change impacts when making decisions about their livelihoods, careers and investments.

He explained that without climate change literacy, hundreds of millions of people across Africa will not be able to sufficiently adapt to climate change.

“A focus on climate change literacy provides a concrete opportunity to mainstream climate change into development agendas in Africa and across the Global South more broadly. Advances in climate change literacy and improved climate forecasting have the potential to work with indigenous and local knowledge practices to deliver transformative climate change adaptation action across Africa,” said Simpson.