Environmental Literacy and Climate Change Adaptation Practices among University Students in University of Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria 58 25
Keywords:
Environmental literacy, climate change, adaptation practices, university students, environmental education, sustainabilityAbstract
Climate change remains one of the most significant environmental challenges affecting human societies, requiring individuals and institutions to develop effective adaptation practices. This study examined the relationship between environmental literacy and climate change adaptation practices among university students. The study adopted a correlational research design. The population consisted of 18,750 undergraduate students of the University of Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria, during the 2025/2026 academic session. A sample of 377 students was selected using a multi-stage sampling technique. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire titled Environmental Literacy and Climate Change Adaptation Practices Questionnaire (ELCCAPQ). The instrument was validated by experts and tested for reliability using Cronbach Alpha coefficient. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while Pearson Product Moment Correlation and multiple regression analysis were used to test the hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that environmental knowledge, environmental attitudes, and environmental skills had significant relationships with climate change adaptation practices among university students. The study also found that environmental literacy significantly predicted students’ climate change adaptation practices. The study concluded that environmental literacy is an important factor in promoting sustainable behaviours and improving students’ capacity to respond to climate change challenges. It was recommended that universities should strengthen environmental education programmes, provide practical opportunities for students to engage in sustainability activities, and develop supportive institutional policies that encourage climate change adaptation practices.Downloads
References
Abdelradi, F. (2018). Food waste behaviour at the household level: A conceptual framework.Waste Management, 71, 485–493. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.10.001
Adger, W. N., Arnell, N. W., & Tompkins, E. L. (2005). Successful adaptation to climate change across scales. Global Environmental Change, 15(2), 77–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2004.12.005
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behaviour. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T
Ardoin, N. M., Bowers, A. W., & Gaillard, E. (2020). Environmental education outcomes for conservation: A systematic review. Biological Conservation, 241, 108224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.108224
A Publication of Primus Academics Research Consult (PARC) ISSN: 3141-3110, EISSN: 3141-6578
Azeiteiro, U. M., Bacelar-Nicolau, P., Caetano, F. J. P., & Caeiro, S. (2015). Education for sustainable development through e-learning in higher education: Experiences from Portugal. Journal of Cleaner Production, 106, 308–319.
Bamberg, S., & Möser, G. (2007). Twenty years after Hines, Hungerford and Tomera: A new meta-analysis of psychosocial determinants of pro-environmental behaviour. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 27(1), 14–25.
Berkes, F. (2017). Environmental governance for the Anthropocene? Social-ecological systems, resilience, and collaborative learning. Sustainability, 9(7), 1232. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9071232
Cordero, E. C., Centeno, D., & Todd, A. M. (2020). The role of climate change education on individual lifetime carbon emissions. PLOS ONE, 15(2), e0206266. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0206266
Fawehinmi, O., Yusliza, M. Y., Mohamad, Z., Faezah, J. N., & Muhammad, Z. (2020). Environmental awareness and environmental behaviour among university students. Journal of Cleaner Production, 276, 123195.
Filho, W. L., Nagy, G. J., Borga, M., Chávez Muñoz, P., & others. (2021). Climate change adaptation and resilience in higher education institutions. Environmental Sciences Europe, 33, 1–12.
Füssel, H. M. (2007). Adaptation planning for climate change: Concepts, assessment approaches, and key lessons. Sustainability Science, 2, 265–275. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-007-0031-y
Giangrande, N., White, R. M., East, M., Jackson, R., Clarke, T., Saloff Coste, M., Penha-Lopes, G., & Grierson, D. (2019). A competency framework to assess and activate education for sustainable development: Addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals 4.7 challenge. Sustainability, 11(10), 2832. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11102832
Gifford, R. (2011). The dragons of inaction: Psychological barriers that limit climate change mitigation and adaptation. American Psychologist, 66(4), 290–302. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023566
Hollweg, K. S., Taylor, J. R., Bybee, R. W., Marcinkowski, T. J., McBeth, W. C., & Zoido, P. (2018). Developing a framework for assessing environmental literacy. North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE).
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2022). Climate change 2022: Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009325844
Kollmuss, A., & Agyeman, J. (2002). Mind the gap: Why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behaviour? Environmental Education Research, 8(3), 239–260.
Filho, W.L., Salvia, A. L., Paço, A., Anholon, R., Quelhas, O. L. G., Rampasso, I. S., Ng, A., Balogun, A. L., Kondev, B., Brandli, L. L., & others. (2022). Sustainability in higher education: Current practices and future developments. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 23(5), 1045–1065.
Filho, W.L., Shiel, C., Paço, A., Mifsud, M., Ávila, L.V., Brandli, L., Molthan-Hill, P., Pace, P., Azeiteiro, U. M., Vargas, V. R., & Caeiro, S. (2019). Sustainable Development Goals and sustainability teaching at universities: Falling behind or getting ahead of the pack? Journal
of Cleaner Production, 232, 285–294. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.05.309
Students in University of Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria Sam, Ime Edet, Ukanga, Idorenyin Partrick, & Otukpa, Maria Oshama
McBride, B. B., Brewer, C. A., Berkowitz, A. R., & Borrie, W. T. (2019). Environmental literacy, ecological literacy, ecoliteracy: What do we mean and how did we get here? Ecosphere, 4(5), 1–20.
Mochizuki, Y., & Bryan, A. (2015). Climate change education in the context of education for sustainable development: Rationale and principles. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 9(1), 4–26.
Monroe, M. C., Plate, R. R., Oxarart, A., Bowers, A., & Chaves, W. A. (2019). Identifying effective climate change education strategies: A systematic review of the research. Environmental Education Research, 25(6), 791–812. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2017.1360842
Onuoha, D. C., & Eze, B. N. (2020). Environmental awareness and sustainable environmental practices among Nigerian university students. International Journal of Environmental Studies, 77(4), 1–15.
Otto, S., & Pensini, P. (2017). Nature-based environmental education of children: Environmental knowledge and connectedness to nature together are related to ecological behaviour. Global Environmental Change, 47, 88–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.09.009
Pörtner, H.-O., Roberts, D. C., Tignor, M., Poloczanska, E. S., Mintenbeck, K., Alegría, A., Craig, M., Langsdorf, S., Löschke, S., Möller, V., Okem, A., & Rama, B. (Eds.). (2022). Climate change 2022: Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press.
Roth, C. E. (1992). Environmental literacy: Its roots, evolution and directions in the 1990s. ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics, and Environmental Education.
Sam, I. E., & Neji, H. A. (2014). Climate change and disaster risk management for sustainable development. Academic Research International, 5(4), 422–428.
Sam, I. E., Onnoghen, U. N., & Addo, D. (2021). Environmental education strategies for sustainable waste management. In A. C. Omoogun (Ed.), Selected themes in environmental education studies (pp. 154–166). Baye Communications.
Sam, I. E., Robert, A. I., & Asuquo, E. E. (2014), Community environmental education: A panacea for environmental sustainability. International Journal of Continuing Education and Development Studies (IJCEDS), 2, 2, 171 – 175.
Smit, B., & Wandel, J. (2006). Adaptation, adaptive capacity and vulnerability. Global
Environmental Change, 16(3), 282–292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.03.008
Stern, P. C. (2000). Toward a coherent theory of environmentally significant behaviour. Journal of Social Issues, 56(3), 407–424. https://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00175
UNESCO-UNEP. (1977). Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education: Final report (Tbilisi Declaration). UNESCO.
Yusliza, M. Y., Govindan, K., Iranmanesh, M., & others. (2020). Sustainable consumption behaviour among university students: The role of environmental knowledge and awareness. Journal of Cleaner Production, 268, 122167.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Articles are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) which allows unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for any third-party materials included in their article. PJIS encourages authors to acknowledge funding sources and disclose any potential conflicts of interest.
