Public Emotions and Climate Change Awareness: Understanding Shifting Perceptions for Sustainable Futures

Abstract

Understanding the evolving emotional landscape surrounding climate change is critical for developing effective environmental strategies and communication. This study offers an analysis of public emotions toward human‐induced climate change by leveraging big data analytics and machine learning techniques on social media content from platform X. Grounded in the collective emotions framework, we trained a model to classify emotional responses—joy, anger, fear, sadness, disgust, and surprise—based on emotion‐related hashtags. We then analyzed climate change–related posts collected from the first week of each year between 2013 and 2022 to predict emotional trends. The findings reveal substantial year‐to‐year fluctuations in emotional expression, with fear consistently emerging as the dominant sentiment. Although no clear linear trajectory was identified, the results highlight patterns of public concern and awareness. By integrating computational methods with social theory, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of how collective emotions surrounding climate change evolve, offering implications for policymakers, communicators, and organizations aiming to enhance climate engagement and sustainable behavior.