Global climate change presents unprecedented challenges to human survival, making effective strategies like low-carbon living a pressing international concern for addressing climate change and sustainable development. This study investigated university students in Taiwan, recognized as future social elites, to systematically examine the relationships among their cognition of climate change, sustainable development, attitudes toward low-carbon living, and resulting low-carbon living behavior. The findings are intended to inform the design of effective educational measures, offer valuable references for understanding public cognition in Taiwan, and support future cross-cultural comparisons.
The research utilized Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to analyze data collected from 432 valid responses from National Cheng Kung University students. SEM was applied to model the complex interrelationships among the four core constructs under investigation: climate change cognition, sustainable development cognition, attitudes toward low-carbon living, and low-carbon living behavior.
A key revelation from the findings is the mechanism through which cognition translates into action. While the analysis confirmed that climate change and sustainable development cognition influence low-carbon living behavior, this influence is indirect. Crucially, the sources state that attitudes toward low-carbon living fully mediate the impact of climate change and sustainable development cognition on behavior. This signifies a critical educational insight: merely enhancing recognition or knowledge alone is insufficient to foster behavioral change effectively. Instead, recognition must first be successfully transformed into favorable attitudes to promote low-carbon practices effectively among this demographic.
These insights highlight the necessity of attitudinal reinforcement. The study emphasizes the importance of integrating robust climate change and sustainability knowledge into environmental education and social movements to cultivate these stronger, necessary attitudes toward low-carbon living. Such attitudinal strength is essential for realizing meaningful behavioral change and ultimately achieving the broader societal goals of sustainability and climate resilience.