How do we perceive climate change? Digging deep in to the public climate change awareness and beliefs in the urban community of Southern Punjab, Pakistan

The growing concern about climate change has rung its bell across the globe and thus the need of devising appropriate mitigation strategies has become inevitable to address this global issue. Climate change mitigation policies cannot be successfully implemented without considering the perception and acceptability of general public about this global crisis and the suggested tools to mitigate it. This study was designed to assess the climate change literacy and awareness among urban centers of Southern Punjab, Pakistan. The studies revealed that majority of the people living in this part of the country were well aware of the changing climate and had fairly clear opinion about the responsible agents for this change. Social media seemed to be the most influential source of educating people on this issue. However, the study highlighted the room of improvement in Government’s role to launch better campaigns which might involve people as stake holders in climate change mitigation process.