A Study on Awareness and Identifying Major Information Sources of Climate Change Communication among the Students of Pondicherry University, India

Climate change has become a global issue, affecting every living and non-living entity on our planet and becoming a major challenge in the 21st-century era. Since the Industrial Revolution, developing countries have witnessed the severe effects of climate change. India, one of such nations with vast geographical diversity, is no exception. Among various geographical regions, coastal areas are more severely affected by these extreme climatic events. Youth participation in the development of developing countries is crucial, and it is greatly needed in disaster risk reduction activities and climate crisis situations. This is particularly enhanced by higher levels of knowledge and the creation of effective communication systems on climate change awareness among the students. The study chooses one of the coastal areas, Puducherry (formally known as Pondicherry), one of India’s union territories located in the southeast coastal region of India. The study attempts to look into students' awareness of this coastal area university, Pondicherry University. By following an exploratory research method, surveys, and questionnaires, the study collects data from Pondicherry University’s Integrated, PG, PhD students, as it is essential to understand how students are understanding today’s climate change issue based on their previous knowledge, present curricula, and media publicity from different information sources about getting knowledge on climate change. Finally, the study attempts to understand that anthropogenic climate change is an important contributor to environmental degradation, which might potentially undermine the UN SDGs. Overall, the study helps us understand that youth awareness is crucial to developing mitigation and adoption strategies.