Making the Message Count: Connecting Communications to Action on Climate Change

You often hear people talk about climate change solutions but what does this really mean for the average person?  And who, for that matter, is the average person? Courtney St. John, Associate Director of Outreach at CRED at Columbia University, highlighted that creating awareness starts with connecting climate change to things that matter in peoples’ lives: what has relevance for them, and what is something they can actually act on? 

This is where solutions come in: getting people to connect with the solutions really has to be about explaining the benefits of acting, and the impact this will have for them and the planet. Emphasizing the impact people can have will empower them to act; they have to believe that the actions you are asking them to take will address the problem, and that the solution will actually be implemented.

For example, the solution of asking people in Washington, D.C. to take public transport instead of driving to work to reduce emissions is good, but a message that talks about the result of that action (i.e. x number of cars off the road per year resulting in x number of CO2 emissions cut, resulting in x reduction in overall emissions for the USA) is better. And even more powerful is a message that includes imagery. Helping people visualize statistics like this can go a long way in making the solution clearer and easier to understand.

By making it easy for people to see how their actions result in solutions that have impact, we can create critical mass for climate action and support genuine change.

(Download a copy of CRED's The Psychology of Climate Change Communication: A Guide for Scientists, Journalists, Educators, Political Aides, and the General Public.) 

Creating awareness and action on climate change is often talked about through the messaging lens. How do we create messages that inspire action? How do we make climate change interesting and understandable? The right language has to be used to reach people – make it too complicated or use too much scientific jargon, and eyes glaze over and heads nod. Make it too simple and important nuances are missed.

Lucia Grenna, Program Manager at Connect4Climate, gave the very fitting example of bleach. We don’t usually call it sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide, we call it bleach because people know what you mean when you say it and it’s easier to remember than an obscure chemical compound. But we still understand what bleach does, how to use it, and what the dangers are. The same goes for climate change. It’s important to use common terms that make sense to people, but we also have to remember that different words have different meanings for different people in different places.

As Lucia pointed out, even the concept of temperature isn’t universal; the difference between Fahrenheit and Celsius is 32 degrees, and makes for two very different scenarios. Two friends, one from Europe and one from the US meeting up for a holiday when it’s ‘32 degrees’ outside might have two very different holidays in mind!

You know the solution you’re aiming for (reduced energy consumption), you know what action you want people to take (installing solar panels), and you’ve crafted your messages (solar panels save you money and are good for the environment)…now what?

All of these steps are part of a broader communications plan to get to the end goal: action on climate change. As you move through these steps, it’s easy to forget why you have chosen specific tactics in the first place. Andrew Schenkel, Managing Editor & Director of Special Projects at tcktcktck/The Global Call for Climate Action talked about the importance of doing yourresearch, crafting a communications plan and sticking with trusted channels to help deliver that plan.

Part of doing your research comes back to messaging; does the audience actually understand what it is you are trying to talk to them about?  Andrew Revkin, New York Times environment journalist and blogger, provided a great example of the shark fin soup campaign that ran in China. By doing their research, campaigners found out that the word for shark fin soup doesn’t actually include the word "shark" In Chinese; the literal translation is "fish wing." Imagine if they hadn’t done their homework, and ran an entire campaign without that knowledge? It’s pretty likely they would’ve got the messaging wrong.

In addition to doing research, it’s essential to understand the why behind what you are doing. Andrew Schenkel pointed out that next week’s Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day concert is happening, and while this is a big deal for climate awareness and action, it’s also not just about a single day, and a single event, but as he said, "it’s about getting people to do awesome things."

And that’s the nail on the head. We need more people doing more awesome things more often to tackle climate change. That’s when a real shift can happen and that’s what the events this month around Earth Day and this year prepping for the United Nation’s Climate Change Negotiations (COP21) in Paris are all about.  And connecting communications to climate change is part of the pathway to making real action possible

Connect4Climate was very pleased with the webinar--a great way to kick off their series of April Earth Day events. (Pictured left to right: Gerardo Spatuzzi, Max Edkins, Lucia Grenna, Adam Bumpus (author), Joelle Auffray (author), Camilo Pena, Paula Silva, Bárbara Simões, and Carol Kaufmann from Connect4Climate).

Joelle Auffray is the Director of Apidae Development Innovations Pty Ltd. Apidae is based in Melbourne, Australia and works with intergovernmental organizations, government, donors and the private sector to help them find and tell the real story behind their sustainable development work. Joelle's expertise is in community engagement, knowledge management, and communicating program impact on sustainable development outcomes.

Dr. Adam Bumpus is a Senior Lecturer in Environment, Innovation and Development at the University of Melbourne. His work focuses on the business and policy pathways to a low carbon future including how new business models can combat climate change, how mobile technologies can make local development more effective, and how local sustainability innovations can become successful in the global economy. He is particularly interested in how low carbon development, technology, and communications can create strong partnerships for sustainable development.