The role of climate change awareness for trust in institutions in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Within the context of climate change in sub-Saharan Africa, trust in institutions is an important prerequisite to implement climate change adaptation and mitigation policies. There is a lack of systematic investigation of the relationship between climate change awareness, conflicts, and trust in institutions. We address this pressing research gap based on a regression analysis with trust in institutions as dependent variables, and climate change awareness and violence as independent variables drawing on Afrobarometer individual data and aggregated data on armed conflicts. Our main findings indicate that trust in institutions in sub-Saharan Africa is influenced by both the individual climate change awareness and the violence context. First, we find a negative relationship between those who are aware of climate change and trust in institutions. Second, we observe a socio-economic divide: young, urban and educated parts of the population as well as those who feel their ethnic group is treated unfairly do not trust institutions. Third, we see a regional divide: those far from political centres are not aware of climate change, and those close to the political centres do not trust institutions.