Results

The questionnaire was divided into four main sections: Knowledge, Anxiety, Action and UCD. In this report, we focus on the results about the UCD questions and the responses from students of the College of Social Sciences and Law (CoSSL). The authors are preparing different papers analysing the data generated by the other sections of the questionnaire.

Knowledge

General knowledge

When asked about how much they know in relation to climate change 92% of students indicate that they know a lot or a moderate amount about it. This percentage is lower among students from the CoSSL (88%).

Specific knowledge

Based on questions developed by the OECD ¹, students were asked to what extent they could explain some issues related to climate change. Among all issues, UCD students find the easiest to explain why some countries suffer more from global climate change than others, with 81% stating that they could do this easily or, at least, with some effort. This aspect is also mentioned as one of the easiest for 15-year-old participants of the OECD assessment across 66 countries, with a similar proportion of 72% on average. On the other hand, the hardest aspect to explain according to UCD students is how economic crises in single countries affect the global economy, with only half of the respondents indicating that they could do this easily or with a bit of effort.

There are also significant differences across colleges. Only 68% of CoSSL students indicate that they can explain how carbon dioxide emissions affect global climate change compared to 90% of their peers from other colleges. Conversely, 83% of CoSSL can discuss reasons why people become refugees and only 69% of respondents from other colleges can do that easily or with some effort.

Information sources

The most cited source of information about the environmental crisis that UCD respondents rely on is news sites (86%) followed by environmental organisations (53%) and Instagram (50%). The least cited sources are Facebook (6%) and Youth groups (7%). Only 17% of students mentioned that they rely on information from other sources at UCD (outside of lectures), with 41% of them relying on information from modules/lectures in UCD.

Emotional response

When asked how often they think about climate change, 78% of respondents say that they think about it at least every week, with 20% thinking about climate change every day or multiple times a day. The groups that present the highest proportion of thinking about it daily are female students (23%) and those coming from rural areas (24%). In addition, half of the respondents indicated that they are very or extremely worried about climate change. These levels are also higher among female students (57%) and CoSSL students (53%).

Drawing on the work of Helm et al. (2018) and informed by social-cognitive approaches, we examine the forms of environmental concern that students are experiencing—egoistic (e.g., concern for oneself; one’s health or life), social-altruistic (e.g., concern for others; future generations or country), and biospheric (e.g., concern for plants and animals; nature). In keeping with the national average, 84% of respondents indicated that they were very or extremely worried about the consequences to future generations indicating a strong sense of socio altruistic concern. 22% stated that they were very/extremely worried about the consequences to their lifestyles now.

The proportion of very/extremely worried students is higher in the CoSSL compared to other colleges for all groups. The highest difference is found in consequences for My future and for Plants whereas the lowest difference is found in consequences for People in my community and for My lifestyle now.

Perceived Risks of Climate Change

Both the nationally representative study “Climate Change in the Irish Mind” and our survey asked participants about their perception of climate change risks. Specifically, both surveys also asked when climate change will start to harm people in Ireland. Results from the national survey showed that 47% of the population believes that climate change is already starting to harm people in Ireland. 22% responded in 10 years, 29% in 25 years or more and 2% said that climate change will never harm people in Ireland. The same question was asked to UCD students with 56% saying that people are already being harmed now, 27% responding in 10 years and 1% saying that climate change will never harm people in Ireland. This result suggests that UCD students have a better grasp of the immediate threat that climate change and environmental degradation pose to the country.

Opportunities to Learn

Less than half of the students participating in the survey (43%) said that there have been enough opportunities to learn about climate change and environment-related issues in their experience in UCD. This proportion is similar among students from CoSSL (44%) and other colleges (42%).

The proportion of female students who indicated that UCD provided enough opportunities to learn about climate change is significantly lower (38%), compared to non-female students (51%).

Calls for Action

UCD students were also asked to what extent some groups should be acting more or less to address climate change. For 79% of the students, “Business” should be acting much more to address climate change. This is the highest proportion followed by “Government” (78%) and “Politicians” (71%). Only 36% of respondents indicated that “Citizens” should act much more and 19% responded that “themselves” should be acting much more to address climate change.

This emphasis on Government’s responsibility corroborates the results from a national survey conducted in 2021 with the Irish adult population ². One of the survey items asked if climate change should be a very high, high, medium, or low priority for the Government of Ireland. Among the population, 42% indicated a very high priority, and 37% responded that a high priority should be given. The same question was asked to UCD students, with 62% indicating a very high priority and 28% a high priority.

We also gauged students’ levels of personal and social engagement with climate change, 71% mentioned “Talked with family and friends about climate change”. This is the most cited action followed by “Punished a company by NOT buying their products because of their contribution to climate change” (54%) and “Reduced your meat and/or dairy intake for environmental reasons” (53%). Some actions have different levels of support across students from the CoSSL and other colleges as indicated in Table 1.

Table 1. Climate-friendly actions that UCD students have taken in the previous 12 months
Action	CoSSL	Other colleges
Reduced your meat and/or dairy intake for environmental reasons	60	47
Personally engaged in non-violent civil disobedience (e.g., sit-ins, blockades,climate march)	26	13
Voted for a green or climate-friendly political party	22	20
Volunteered your time to an organization working on climate change	10	14
Chosen a sustainability or climate-related career	7	18
None of the above	4	6
Met with, wrote letters, emailed, or phoned government officials about climate change	3	6
Applied to a sustainability or climate-related master programme	1	7

UCD

Climate Related Behaviours

Most students are willing to take political actions to reduce climate change. Such behaviours can engender a sense of agency among those who are concerned about environmental problems. In particular when engagement is understood as a way of live as opposed to a series of battles (Wapner, 2016). Only 1 in 3 students in UCD indicated that there have been enough opportunities to become involved in activities (such as volunteering) related to climate change and environment.

The percentage of students from CoSSL who declared having those opportunities is lower (29%) than those from other colleges (36%).

In the same way that was observed for learning opportunities, the proportion of respondents who said that UCD provided opportunities to act is lower among female students (28%), compared to non-female students (41%). Notably, the levels of political engagement among students is particularly low with less approximately 5% reporting engaging wiht government officials about climate change.

Barriers to Climate-Friendly Action and Lifestyle Changes

The survey also asked participants what barriers students in UCD face to take climate-friendly action and lifestyle changes. The most cited barrier is that “Most students have other more pressing problems that take most of their attention e.g. course work”, mentioned by 70% of the students, 64% among CoSSL and 68% among female students.

The other top cited barriers are “Most students don’t have enough knowledge on climate change” (55%) and “Most students don’t have the skills e.g. public speaking / organising” (46%)

Opportunities for Further Learning

Finally, participants also indicated several topics related to climate change that they would like to learn more about at UCD. The table below indicates the percentage of participants that mentioned each of the topics.

Table 2. Topics that students would like to learn more about
Topic	Percentage
Sustainable food options	55
Fast fashion/sustainable fashion	54
The role of businesses and corporations in climate change	53
Sustainable buildings	52
How to take action on climate change	50
Politics and policy around climate change	48
Protecting biodiversity	47
Reducing your plastic waste	43
Climate justice	40
Lobbying the government about climate-friendly action and lifestyle changes	37
Gardening and growing	34
Circular economy	29

Footnotes

1. OECD. PISA 2018 Results (Volume VI): Are Students Ready to Thrive in an Interconnected World? PISA. OECD, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1787/d5f68679-en.

2. Leiserowitz, A, J Carman, S Rosenthal, L Neyens, J Marlon, M Desmond, S Smith, MF Rochford, J O’Mahony, and L Reaper. “Climate Change in the Irish Mind.” New Haven: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, 2021. https://www.epa.ie/publications/monitoring–assessment/climate-change/EPA-Climate-in-the-Irish-Mind-REPORT-19.pdf.