SUSTAINABILITY COMMUNICATION IN SINGAPORE: AN EVALUATION OF THE 2018 CLIMATE ACTION CAMPAIGNS

Abstract

In consideration of the increased focus on climate change and sustainability in Singapore over the past few years, this thesis examined the effectiveness of the "2018 Singapore Year of Climate Action" Campaign by the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) and the "2018 NUS for Climate Action" Campaign by the National University of Singapore (NUS). Undergraduates' awareness, attitude and behavioural adaptation towards living sustainability were uncovered through surveys and interviews. The findings revealed three groups of undergraduates aged between 19-25 - committers: 50% of undergraduates who actively practice sustainable behaviour, explorers: 30% of undergraduates who only do so selectively, and deniers: 20% of undergraduates were not adapting their behaviour. Gendered differences in behavioural adaptation were found ? females were more active in practicing the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). Particularly, females had more committers (58.3%), more explorers (33.3%) and less deniers (8.3%). In comparison, males had more deniers (37.5%), less committers (37.5%) and less explorers (25%). While undergraduates recognised the lack of sustainability culture locally, only the committers acted on the knowledge and committed to sustainable behaviours. Financial savings, family influence and international exposure enabled their commitment to behavioural changes. The gap between knowledge and behaviour was evident in the explorers and deniers. For the deniers, the obstacles to behavioural change was due to their feelings of powerlessness, their lack of intrinsic motivation and the unconducive external social environment. For the explorers, the perceived behavioural control in the social setting including convenience and the external environment including external infrastructures and external culture obstructed the sustaining of behavioural change. Class and subsequent access to opportunities also surfaced as enablers/obstacles across the three groups. When examining the impact of Climate Action Campaigns on undergraduates, this thesis found that 60% were unaware of any sustainability campaigns, 90% were unaware of MEWR's 2018 Campaign, and 80% were unaware of the NUS 2018 Climate Action Campaign. No significant differences in awareness level were found across the three groups as majority were unaware of the 2018 Campaigns. The lack of awareness on campaigns was due to the lack of prioritisation of environmental goals by undergraduates and inconsistent campaign implementation in NUS. In light of the barriers identified, undergraduates suggested three strategies for improvement, namely 1) more targeted campaigns for different groups, 2) PM Lee to launch National Environmental Challenge (NEC), and 3) having more substantial incentives and disincentives. The researcher also provided four recommendations for relevant stakeholders, namely 1) addressing misperceptions and knowledge gaps; 2) showing waste management behind-the-scenes; 3) showing people that their action matters; and 4) making it convenient to carry out sustainable behaviour. This thesis provides the first evaluation of current Singapore government and NUS sustainability campaigns. Given the lack of generalisability of this thesis's research methods, future research can examine the impact of campaigns for a longer time period, use diaries for data collection and examine the role of race in knowledge possessing, attitude and behavioural change.