Effectiveness of Communication Strategies in Confronting Climate Change: The Views of the Citizens of Greece

The aim of this paper is to identify groups of citizens and their characteristics so that effective climate change communication strategies can be designed. The research was carried out from January 2014 to June 2015, 1536 questionnaires were completed which were evaluated on the basis of the co-efficient α-Cronbach, descriptive statistics, Friedman’s non-parametric criterion, factor analysis and cluster analysis. The research showed that Greek citizens think that the most important concerned parties for taking action against climate change are environmental organizations, scientists and local citizen environmental groups. In addition, two groups of citizens were identified. In the first group belong mostly citizens aged 31–40 and less citizens aged 41–50, married, mainly graduates of secondary and tertiary education, most are public servants or unemployed and satisfied from governmental activities regarding municipal projects concerning adaptation, energy saving and lifelong learning. In the second group of citizens also belong young to middle age citizens, unmarried, who mainly work in the public and private sector, who are satisfied both from the activities of non-governmental concerned parties as well as governmental activities regarding adaptation to extreme environmental phenomena, mitigation and waste management.