Citizens' perception of climate change: Istanbul case

Environmental problems caused directly or indirectly by human beings are both diversifying and gaining different dimensions day by day. Climate change is one of the most serious environmental problems. Although climate change is perceived as a global problem, it is clear that its effects and consequences will not be felt equally in every country. As a result of examining social vulnerabilities and social dynamics in the context of climate change, it is predicted that developing countries will be more affected by the negative consequences of climate change. One of the places that will be directly or indirectly affected by climate change is the cities where the majority of the world's population lives. Considering the fact that two-thirds of the total population will live in cities in 2050, the most important responsibility and duty in the fight against climate change belongs to the cities. As far as Turkey is taken into account, Istanbul is one of the cities that will be adversely affected by the consequences of climate change. In this study, for the first time, public consciousness of the citizens living in Istanbul on climate change was revealed and also climate change perception of the citizens was investigated. In this study, in which the public consciousness of the citizens on climate change was taken into account, it was observed that more than ninety percent of the participants heard about the concept of climate change and its negative consequences. Despite the fact that the concept of climate change is known to such a high degree, it has been observed that about forty percent of the participants in the research are undecided about adaptation and mitigation process of climate change. Also, in this study, the public consciousness about international conventions and official texts within the framework of climate change, national and local climate change action plans were investigated. Two scales were used in the study in order to reveal the climate change perceptions of the citizens living in Istanbul. The first of these scales is the climate change risk perception, and the second is the perception of confidence that central government and local governments fulfill their responsibilities regarding climate change. Furthermore, it has been revealed whether the aforementioned climate change perceptions show a statistically significant difference in terms of gender, marital status, number of children parented, age, education level, income level, residential neighborhood and period. Keywords: Climate Change, City, Climate Change Perception, İstanbul