Climate Change Awareness in Indonesia: Perceptions, Patterns, and Pathways

Assessing public awareness of climate change is essential for understanding the recognition of human-driven impacts and informing mitigation, adaptation, and policy actions; however, recent evidence suggests that indicators are narrow and national-level data are limited. This study, therefore, aims to assess public awareness of climate change among Indonesians by formulating a Climate Change Awareness Index (CCAI) that integrates motivation, knowledge, and skills — reflecting underlying values, factual understanding, and practical abilities for climate action. An online survey of Indonesians residing both domestically and abroad yielded 476 valid responses. Using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) combined with a Gradient Boosting Regression model, we identified the leading contributors to climate change awareness: fossil fuel usage, religious obedience, perceived economic impacts, individual pro-environmental efforts, and sustainable waste management practices. The median CCAI score was [Formula: see text], indicating a moderate to high level of awareness, with substantial regional variations. Three dominant pathways to awareness emerged, the most prominent beginning with religious obedience, progressing through awareness of fossil fuel use, and culminating in recognition of environmental impacts. Although the model explains 76.8% of the variance in awareness, important factors such as information and knowledge sources are not yet fully represented. Overall, this study underscores the importance of self-awareness, collectivist values, and faith-based motivations in fostering climate action, offering insights to guide future policy design and research in Indonesia and similar contexts.