Czech students show varied beliefs in climate change mitigations and their willingness to act

Most people today acknowledge that human-caused climate change is a pressing issue, but many do not know what efforts can be made to mitigate climate change. To avoid a climate disaster, it is important for the public to understand mitigation measures and change their own behaviors. Research has shown that climate change is an important issue to young people, and their pro-environmental behaviors and attitudes are highly influenced during school age. In the Czech Republic, due to the country's political history, individuals are skeptical of large challenges like climate change. Compared to other European countries, Czech students are less likely to believe in the threat of global warming and are the least educated about it. Public figures in the Czech Republic perpetuate this belief and the educational curriculum underrepresents climate change topics. More research is needed on Czech students' beliefs towards climate change, particularly since results could influence teaching designs. This study investigated Czech primary and secondary students beliefs towards the efficacy of global warming mitigation strategies, their willingness to act on these strategies, how their beliefs and willingness to act relate, and how gender and level of education influence all those. The study also compared these results with students from other countries.

This study focused on Czech students in upper-primary and secondary school, with participants ages 14-15 and 18-19 years old. A total of 22 primary and 17 secondary schools participated in the study, resulting in a total of 1,220 student participants. The schools were selected based on random sampling and stratified sampling, which helped get a representative sample. Each participant completed a two-part questionnaire distributed in geography classes between March and May of 2017. The first part of the questionnaire focused on participants' beliefs on the efficacy of 16 mitigation methods. The second half evaluated participants' willingness to participate in 16 pro-environmental actions corresponding to the mitigation methods mentioned in the first portion. The responses were analyzed for frequency and differences between age and gender groups. The relationship between beliefs in efficacy of actions and willingness to act was quantified using the Potential Effectiveness of Education index to determine the degree to which willingness to act increases due to students' belief of the usefulness of that act.

Participants responded that the most effective mitigation strategies were related to individual transport, including using cars less or using cars with more effective fuel consumption. The next most effective mitigation strategy was adopting renewable resources for power generation. Respondents also supported strengthening participation in international climate agreements as a mitigation strategy but were not as supportive of environmental taxes or legislation. The researchers noted that this could be the result of the fairly recent and minor presence of environmentalism in Czech culture and politics. Participants were least supportive of reducing meat consumption. Older participants believed more in the efficacy of mitigation measures for 14 out of the 16 mitigation methods The difference in opinion by gender was more significant in the secondary school participants than the upper-primary school participants. The male participants were more supportive of nuclear resources for power generation, while female participants believed strongly in the merits of abandoning artificial fertilizers and using smaller cars with lower fuel consumption.

Participants were most willing to recycle more and switch off unused devices and were least willing to pay higher taxes and pay more for power from nuclear sources. The secondary student participants were more willing to act for 8 of the 16 actions. Gender-related differences were significant for some actions for upper-primary and secondary student participants. Female students were more willing to eat less meat and pay more for food produced without fertilizers, while male students were more willing to refrain from buying new items and pay more for electricity produced by nuclear power stations.

The analysis on the relationship between beliefs in efficacy of actions and willingness to act (the Potential Effectiveness of Education scores) for upper-primary students showed that a low percentage of variability in willingness to act can be attributed to believed usefulness of actions. Secondary student participants had developed more diverse attitudes towards actions than upper-primary student participants, therefore, their beliefs accounted for different levels of variability in willingness to act. The researchers concluded that when students perceived a mitigation action as more effective, they were more willing to act.

In the comparison with students from other countries, the study found that Czech, British, and Australian students were all skeptical of actions claiming to improve the effects of global warming. However, in the Czech Republic, secondary students believed more in the efficacy of actions than upper-primary students, while in Australia the opposite phenomenon was observed. Czech students were amongst the least willing to act along with British and Australian students, which the researchers speculated could be a reflection of climate skepticism in the Czech Republic. Czech students were more willing to adopt pro-environmental actions that reduced costs but were less willing to adopt inconvenient or costly actions. This was also observed in the other countries' student characteristics.

This study did have limitations. An individuals' willingness to act and beliefs in mitigation actions can be influenced by factors which were not accounted for in this study. Also, this study only sampled upper primary and upper secondary students from the Czech Republic, limiting the generalizability of the results. Finally, the schools and participants were not selected completely randomly.

The researchers recommend that climate change education is needed to increase the concern and willingness to act for youth, especially in areas like the Czech Republic, where students have yet to recognize the impacts of climate change. Based on other research, they suggest discussions, field experiences, and lessons about local impacts of climate change. They also recommend sufficient teacher education so they may feel confident teaching about climate change, otherwise poor understanding of climate change may lead to negative attitudes on the topic.