As the conversation to save the planet gathers momentum ahead of the United Nations Cop21 Climate Change Conference in Paris in December, the level of concern among the developed countries is not as impressive.

A recent report by American think tank PEW Research Centre on global perceptions on climate change shows that sub-Saharan Africa is the most concerned at 59 per cent.

Climate change is particularly worrying in Burkina Faso (79 per cent), Uganda (74 per cent) and Ghana (71 per cent), while South Africans (47 per cent) and Tanzanians (49 per cent) are the least concerned. Kenya recorded 58 per cent.

In Europe and the US, the concern about climate change is relatively low — averaging 42 per cent. In China, the figure is 19 per cent while in Russia it is 22 per cent.

Even though Africa’s emissions continue to rise, they are lower than those of developed nations.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change notes that Africa’s emissions between 1950 and 2008, reached 311 million metric tonnes of carbon, which is still lower than the emissions for some single nations including China, the US, India, Russia and Japan.

Government role

About a month before the PEW survey, UNFCCC hosted the first ever WorldWide Views on Climate forum, to get citizen’s opinions on how governments are handling the matter, and what a climate action plan should look like.

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, said: “The vast majority of citizens want action now, and they want action that is sustained over the long term to bend the emissions down to zero by the end of the century, along with support for developing countries for their efforts.”

Asked if high-income countries should pay more than the already agreed $100 billion annually by 2020 for mitigation and adaptation in low-income countries, 78 per cent said yes.

“Here in Kenya for instance, little attention is being given to climate change,” said Lillian Yahuma, a tour and travel consultant based in Nairobi who was among the 100 people from the country who took part in the survey.

Her biggest worry is the rising waters of Lake Nakuru, which will mean no income for her if action is not taken urgently, because the lake will close for business.

Some 10,000 people from 76 countries around the world participated in the WWViews.