Knowledge related to climate change and willingness to act for adaptation and mitigation practices in rural Nepal

This descriptive analysis sought to test Leiserowitz 2007 findings. Leiserowitz 2007 findings claimed that until people gained a general understanding of climate change or it was commonly discussed as a part of everyday discourse, people would perceive lesser risk and would be less willing to follow mitigation and adaptation measures. A cross-sectional study using a semistructured questionnaire was conducted among 206 randomly selected respondents in ward number one, eight, and nine of Sardikhola village development committee of Kaski district between September and December 2012. The level of knowledge ranged between a high of 41% and a low of 12% with 47% possessing moderate knowledge of climate change. On the basis of this range of knowledge of climate change, 38% of respondents indicated they were more willing to adopt mitigation and adaptation actions. This study found that people of Sardikhola who were aware of the term 'climate change' have moderate knowledge about climate change, responded that they were "less willing" to adopt mitigation actions