How to win friends and influence people on climate: Promising advances in climate communications

The climate crisis is a defining challenge of our time. It’s increasingly clear there are no safe havens from climate shocks, but the poorest people who pollute the least are suffering the most. Responding requires transforming our economies to cut emissions and build resilience. Climate communications often focuses on the negative impacts of a changing climate or the benefits of taking action. Increasingly, there are promising efforts that go beyond trying to influence policy-makers to messaging that can shape how people and communities think, feel and act on climate. Here are 5 that are reframing the climate narrative for people and planet:

Elevating Voices From the Frontlines of Climate Change: People living in poverty are more vulnerable and they pay a big price from climate impacts. Many will experience these impacts on an ongoing basis with health, livelihoods and lives affected by heatwaves, droughts, floods, natural disasters take their toll. For these people it’s all about adapting the climate change and there are compelling examples of how engaging and empowering communities can make adaptation more effective. The key is to ensuring highly localized actions are driven by engaged citizens so that solutions reflect local context, needs, and ownership. There are promising examples that show this approach works, including Kenya’s locally led adaptation efforts or France’s Convention Citoyenne pour le climat – but more work is needed to support community driven climate action and results.   

Attribution Science is Showing Climate Impacts Here and Now: Attributing extreme weather, such as heatwaves, floods or drought, to climate change used to take scientists months, by which time media and public opinion had long since moved on. Today, thanks to World Weather Attribution (WWA), studies happen in real time – in the immediate aftermath of extreme weather,, or even as storms are unfolding. This allows media reporting in real time on how elevated ocean and air temperatures and other factors are intensifying extreme weather. For instance, the WWA attributed 10% heavier rainfall linked to climate when hurricane Helene hit the US. This real-time information helps policymakers, humanitarian agencies and the media make the connection allowing for greater public understanding of how climate is changing people’s lives

Climate Portrayals in Popular Visual Culture: Climate portrayals on TV, in films and on social media  are moving beyond disaster movie favorites, but only just. According to research commissioned by Good Energy, a non-profit climate story consultancy, less than 1% of US scripted TV and films released between 2016 and 2020 mentioned the term “climate change”. When the survey included terms like “global warming”, “sea level rise”, “solar panels”, - climate-adjacent terms mentions still only come in at under 3%. There are some important examples that show this may be changing. Netflix’s ‘Don’t Look Up’ and ‘Three Body Problem’, climate subplots in popular TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy or Big Little Lies, suggest  audiences and film and TV writers alike are keen for greater representation in popular culture. And evidence also shows that wider representation in mass media can boost awareness, and understanding and help individuals think about solutions.

Markets and Courts Are Driving the Climate Agenda: Despite headwinds, markets and courts are giving momentum and a sense of inevitability that a transition to a cleaner greener world is unstoppable. More than a third of the world’s electricity will come from renewables in 2025. The lower market costs of renewables is driving clean energy investments along with fears that fossil fuel investments could leave investors holding stranded assets. There is also growing action in courts around the world with litigants seeking damages from countries and the fossil fuel industry for damages to people’s health and wellbeing. The State of California, for instance is suing ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and BP accusing them of ‘misleading the public’ about the environmental impact of fossil fuels and delaying climate action through disinformation campaigns.

Champions, Networks and Partners: How Wider Engagement is Building Communities for Action: Climate action is a policy issue, an economics issue, and a financing issue – it is also a social issue, requiring coalitions, partnerships and networks to come together. The most recently striking example of community action for climate has been the youth climate movement that transcended national and geographical borders and helped shift the conversation from a distant problem to one that is already affecting present generations. There are also welcome shifts underway now to reflect priorities of the youth climate community within formal policy processes and dialogue. The World Bank’s Connect4Climate initiative for instance, seeks to work with climate leaders to catalyze a global climate movement with youth at its center. Other networks – coalitions of mayors or city level policymakers, regional leaders, shareholder activist networks – are also proving the power behind the principle that no one group or country or institution can deliver success alone, but together much more is possible.

By repeating and reinforcing these five story lines, communicators can help shift views on climate change and how people respond.

By repeating and reinforcing these five story lines, communicators can help shift views on climate change and how people respond. As more people experience extreme weather that is attributed to climate they may be convinced of the scientific reality. Learning about market growth in renewable energy, technology advances and legal challenges facing polluters can help reframe the existential threat as a solvable problem. Messengers have an opportunity to use these narratives to build trust with communities and encourage cultural and behavioral shifts needed to accelerate climate action.