Awareness of Climate Change among the African Community in Finland: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

The aim of this thesis was to explore the African Community’s awareness, experiences and perceptions on climate change in Finland. The development task focused on exploring the perceptions of African people, identifying the factors that facilitate awareness and highlighting adaptation and coping strategies regarding climate change in Finland.

A qualitative approach was applied in this study. The Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) theory was utilized as the theoretical framework in this qualitative study and ten members of the African community living in Finland were interviewed about their awareness, perceptions and understanding of climate change. The study employed a semi-structured interview and thematic analysis to examine how cultural background, lived experiences, and access to environmental information influence climate awareness.

The results were categorized into five themes which includes understanding of climate change observable and possible examples of climate change, experiences of climate change and perceptions of climate change and its effect, perspective about climate change changed in time or after coming to Finland, daily tasks to mitigate climate change and information and knowledge sharing. The perceptions and awareness were greatly influenced by factors like socioeconomic status, access to information and the importance of addressing cultural and linguistic barriers to enhance the effective communication of climate change information to African communities in Finland.

In conclusion, cultural sensitive approaches to climate change communication and the need for targeted awareness campaigns to educate the African communities about climate change would result to great impacts and mitigation strategies. The study emphasizes the need for more inclusive climate communication strategies that take into consideration different perspectives and experiences of the African community. These findings advance the knowledge on how to engage and communicate about climate change in diverse cultures and experiences of the African community.