Leadership Challenges in Building Urban Youth Climate Change Awareness

Gabor Sarlos
RMIT University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

ABSTRACT

The research provides a connection, within the context of climate change, between successful and globally recognized leadership models and the need for leadership of urban young people in Hanoi and its agglomeration in their actions to reduce climate change. To research climate change awareness and attitudes data has been collected and analyzed through an online questionnaire addressed to people within 18-39 years of ago and living in the larger urban area of Hanoi. Findings of the research show that awareness about and attitude to climate change differ significantly. Socio-demographics analysis of the data led to the realization that significant differences in awareness levels exist. Three prominent clusters can be identified. The first cluster of respondents does not acknowledge a clear connection between individual difficulties and changes in their lives with the phenomena of climate change, and are relatively oblivious of the phenomena. A more prominent cluster of the population reflects an existing knowledge about climate change, however they do not think it to be their responsibility to act against it. A third cluster is composed of those people who demonstrate significant awareness of the issue, tie it primarily to human intervention, and would be ready to act upon that personally. However, they have not come to taking any specific action yet. These clusters are finally matched against archetype leadership models to find the best possible leadership traits to guide each cluster. Limitations of the research include the limited depth of responses of online questionnaires, and some of the confusions around the symptoms, elements and consequences of climate change. The research and the leadership framework setting can contribute to creating a local strategy to a global program, and help set the example of successful leadership strategies in the field of building awareness, providing direction and motivation in tackling the challenges of this critically important issue.

KEYWORDS

Climate change, youth, Hanoi, global warming, leadership models