Growing climate change risk concerns with rising regional disparities in China

This study presents a high-resolution mapping of climate change perceptions across China, highlighting the evolution of public perception regarding the priority and impact of climate change over a 13-year period between 2010 and 2023. Utilizing data from two national surveys conducted (N = 11783 and N = 4050), we show a considerable rise in the perceived priority (19%) and impact (13%) of climate change issues nationally, alongside growing regional disparities. We do robustness checks of our results using repeated simulations between multilevel regression and poststratification and disaggregation methods. By examining perceived impacts against actual risk exposure, we show the need for managing regional vulnerabilities and tailored and targeted communication strategies to mitigate the spatial mismatch between climate change perception and risk exposure.