<p>Climate change threats pose cascading effects on residents in coastal areas. Yet empirical evidence on how young adults in climate-vulnerable coastal areas, who are future leaders, educators, and policymakers, perceive these threats is rare. The current study assesses the factors that determine university students’ climate threat appraisal in a climate-vulnerable coastal area of Ghana. The study used a cross-sectional design with a sample of 383 undergraduate students to assess the effect of cognitive, affective, communication and socio-demographics on climate threat appraisal. Frequencies, percentages, t-tests, one-way ANOVA, correlation and hierarchical multiple regression were used to analyse the data. Results show that respondents perceive high levels of threat to the natural environment (69.5%), the globe (71%), Ghana/society (69.93%) and personal/self (65.53%). Students’ perceived concern, likelihood of harm, and worry about climate change were rated at over 70%, while over 65% of respondents have discussed climate change in the past month, the past 12 months, or the past 24 months. Significant differences in threat appraisal exist across gender, age, and academic level. There was a strong positive association between threat appraisal and psychosocial factors. While the final model explained 31.1% of the variance in climate threat appraisal, worry, personal harm, and societal/general harm were the strongest individual predictors. This suggests that students’ climate threat appraisal is a function of psychological processes, shaped by social and demographic factors. The result suggests a need for an integrated climate policy, youth-led climate education, discussions and workshops, as well as demographic-sensitive action in vulnerable coastal communities.</p>