Perceptions of Climate-Induced Risks to Economic, Food, and Health Security Among Young Adults in Hamburg. : A Quantitative Study of Climate Risk Perception and Human Security

Sammanfattning

Climate Change is no longer only a threat to ecosystems and the environment but is increasingly affecting humans as well. Changes in the climate can have indirect effects on humans across dimensions that at first appear to be unrelated to environmental change. Existing research often focuses on countries in the global south that appear to suffer most under these effects. Only limited attention has been paid to how people in developed, wealthy countries perceive the effects of climate change in their daily lives. The perceptions of young adults are especially interesting since they need to live with the consequences and effects of climate change in the long term. The research examines how young urban adults aged 18-25 in Hamburg, Germany, perceive the effects of climate change as a threat to their economic, food and health security. Additionally, the study explores whether perceptions differ based on socio-economic and sociodemographic differences. As a theoretical foundation, the Human Security framework covers three key dimensions to analyse how young adults experience insecurities within these areas of daily life. As a second analytical framework, the Climate Change Risk Perception Model is applied. An online self-completion survey is used as the main instrument to reach out to a wide variety of people within the target group. The survey collected 108 valid respondents, which were examined and analysed through SPSS. The research concludes that young adults in Hamburg perceive climate change as a threat to their human security, while food security is perceived to be the most threatened dimension. Respondents who show higher levels of climate change risk perception also show higher perceived insecurity levels. Furthermore, socio-economic and demographic characteristics affect the level of perceived insecurity.