Public perception of environmental problems in Central Asia: results from the Life in Transition survey

Environmental problems negatively affect air quality, biodiversity, and socio-economic life in Central Asia. The problems have a slow, gradual, and intense nature; therefore, detecting or following changes in human experience is challenging. This manuscript uses the Life in Transition dataset to analyse climate change awareness and willingness to mitigate among populations from Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Our findings confirm that public perceptions of environmental problems differ, showing the highest concern about air pollution, waste, species loss, temperature, natural disasters, and the spread of disease in Uzbekistan and the Kyrgyz Republic. However, awareness or concern about environmental problems in Tajikistan is relatively low. Although people are ready to contribute to climate change mitigation, citizens from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are less willing to contribute. From a policy point of view, understanding societal concerns about climate change and considering willingness to contribute are important to implementing the climatic policy.