Citizen 2000: development of a model of environmental citizenship

Abstract Evironmental citizenship is a nationally-and-internationally stated objective. The interacting components which comprise the environmental citizen are generally not in dispute; it is the relationships between them and their relative importance that are poorly understood. A model of environmental citizenship was developed and tested via a public questionnaire-based survey. Multiple regression-and-correlation analyses indicate that participation in environmental education and training is the most important predictor of environmental behaviour followed by emotionality. However, the complexity of interactions which determine behaviour illustrates that environmental citizens are not produced merely by programmes of education, but by a whole range of factors with which education may interact. The model also demonstrates that the combination of the solutions subscale of sense of personal responsibility and the others subscale of locus of control exert a strong influence on behaviour, indicating the importance of a philosophy that recognizes the value of the individual in solving environmental problems. An internal locus of control is an important pre-requisite of environmental citizenship, as is a combination of both abstract and concrete knowledge. These results are generally comparable with other, largely US-based studies. It is therefore possible to conclude that the inter-relationships between environmental citizenship components are usually constant and that the model of environmental citizenship developed here is transferable.