Climate Change

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In February 2019, RAU published a report on Zimbabweans understanding of climate change,
comparing Zimbabwe with eight other countries in the region. In August 2019, the
Afrobarometer published a report looking at 34 countries in Africa. Both reports examined the
extent to which African citizens understood climate change and its threats. The findings were
not comforting, as rural residents, women, the poor, the less educated and people that work in
agriculture were not very familiar with the concept of climate change.

 


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The First question about understanding climate change is: to what extent do SADC citizens
understand climate change and its possible causes and effects? Obviously fostering “citizen
awareness” can start from the basis that citizens are well informed through degrees of
understanding to citizens having little or no knowledge. For example, there is scientific
evidence about changes in climate in SADC countries, and this information obviously will
drive the decision-makers, but to what extent does this information mirror the understanding of
ordinary citizens