Exploring the Moderating Role of Environmental Education in Promoting a Clean Environment

Environmental education plays a significant role in improving environmental knowledge and shaping the eco-friendly lifestyles of young people. Young people’s daily actions and habits will determine the future of the Earth as a planet. The literature regarding youths’ environmental knowledge, climate change awareness, environmental attitude, and their impact on pro-environmental intentions and sustainable household consumption practices is very scarce. Therefore, this study explored the relationship between environmental knowledge, climate change awareness, environmental attitude, and the pro-environmental intentions of university students. The study also assessed the moderating effect of environmental education on pro-environmental behavior and sustainable household consumption practices, providing a comparative analysis of students with and without environmental education, which is unique in the literature. The data were collected from 2137 Chinese university students selected through a purposive and random sampling method through survey questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) were used to analyze the collected data. The findings revealed that environmental knowledge, climate change awareness, and environmental attitudes of the students positively affected their pro-environmental intentions. Moreover, pro-environmental intentions also positively affected the adoption of sustainable practices. The result also showed that the impact of pro-environmental intentions on sustainable consumption practices was greater for those whose education included environmental courses than for those whose education did not. Therefore, it is suggested that environment-related courses be incorporated into the study plans of each discipline as a compulsory subject for promoting green intentions and shaping eco-friendly lifestyles for environmental sustainability.