Awareness of Climate Change and Sustainability among University Students: A Case from District Attock

Abstract

The substantial purpose of the study was to investigate the awareness of university students about the concept of climate change and sustainability. A quantitative approach followed by a descriptive, survey research design was employed for achieving study objectives. As the study was limited to the Attock district, a total of three universities: the University of Education, Lahore (Attock Campus), COMSATS University Islamabad (Attock Campus), and Air University Aerospace and Aviation Campus Kamra participated in the study. The study population was 3880 undergraduate university students, out of these 400 students were randomly selected. The researcher developed a questionnaire titled 'Climate Change and Sustainability Awareness Questionnaire’ to collect data from the subjects. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS, and descriptive (frequencies, percentages, mean, SD) and inferential statistics (t-test, ANOVA) were applied where appropriate. Results showed that the majority of university students are aware of the concept of climate change and sustainability. The participants significantly differ in their awareness based on university and program, while no significant difference was found based on gender and university sector. The study suggested future researchers explore the issues by adopting a qualitative approach to understand the phenomenon in depth.