In response to growing concerns over negative emotions towards climate change worldwide, it is essential that a validated and reliable scale is available for the generalizability of the constructs being measured, and it is not just applicable to Western context, but also the East.

The present study aims to conduct a psychometric investigation of the 13-item Climate Change Anxiety Scale (CCAS) of Clayton and Karazsia in Traditional Chinese using a large sample (N = 1,567) of Chinese individuals in Hong Kong, China. The CCAS was translated, back-translated, cross-culturally adapted and pilot-tested. We performed descriptive, scale reliability, exploratory factor and confirmatory factor analyses.

Unlike the two-factor structure of the original scale, our results revealed a three-factor structure of the 13-item CCAS version that captured three dimensions of climate change anxiety: intrusive symptoms, reflections on climate anxiety, and functional impairment. The scale showed good goodness-of-fit indices, internal consistency and reliability. The Chinese CCAS version demonstrated high levels of reliability estimates and significant, albeit weak, correlations with the relevant constructs of well-being, anxiety and depression, environmental orientation, self-efficacy and belief denial.

Overall, the Chinese CCAS version has good reliability and validity, and it can be used as a valid assessment tool for climate change anxiety screening with Chinese individuals, thus providing a foundation for better understanding various climate change–related emotions through an anxiety lens in the Chinese context.