Resources for Environmental and Sustainability Communicators
What we say about climate change and how we say it matters. It affects how people think, feel and act. The right story can build the public appetite needed to catalyse change. Decades of research and experience shows how stories can shift how people think and feel. They can make important actions feel right, normal and inevitable. Intentionally changing the...
The world has changed and climate advocates are having to change with it, adapting plans and campaigns to a profoundly new external environment. Timing and sensitivity are paramount in communicating climate change during Covid-19 – otherwise the climate sector risks undermining climate action for the long term. So what does the evidence say about how to engage people on climate...
This resource is a workshop with information and practical exercises that will give you knowledge of the science of climate change communication, and the confidence to apply this knowledge in practice with non-academic audiences. It is designed for all researchers across the physical, natural and social sciences.
A narrow visual vocabulary currently determines climate change in the public mind: polar bears, melting ice-caps, smokestacks and – as the results of our Climate Visuals research show – potentially polarising images of environmental protesters. This can undermine the effectiveness of campaign messages by failing to engage audiences, and can detract from the reach and value of journalistic reporting on...
Despite the energy and resources our community dedicates to communication strategies for written and spoken campaign materials, the amount of research on how to effectively engage people using visual images of climate change is much more limited. As a result, an easily-recognisable climate change iconography has taken root over the past 25 years. This narrow visual vocabulary still determines climate...
This initial briefing paper summarises research and expertise on public communication of drought risks in a changing climate. We explore the difficulties involved in building understanding and engagement with the sometimes complex issues surrounding climate change and drought in the UK. The report outlines how communicators can best respond to these challenges. These lessons are intended to support delivery of...
Climate change is a notoriously ‘distant’ risk for most people – it feels ‘not here’ and it feels ‘not now’. Anyone who has had any experience trying to engage the public on climate change will likely recognise the challenge of overcoming the so-called ‘psychological distance’ of the issue, and bringing climate change ‘closer to home’. There is a lot of...
Every day, thousands of images of climate change are shared around the world. But while research on the verbal and written communication of climate change has proliferated, our understanding of how people interpret visual images of climate change is limited to a much smaller number of academic studies, which do not provide much in the way of practical guidance for...
If you have ever struggled with the communication of uncertainty, then this handbook is for you. It distills the most important research findings and expert advice into a few pages of practical, easy- to-apply techniques providing scientists, policy-makers and campaigners with the tools they need to communicate more effectively around climate change…. This handbook offers some strategies for closing the...
Engaging meaningfully with a diverse range of individuals and organisations is one of the biggest challenges surrounding climate change adaptation. To help address this issue, COIN has teamed up with Adaptation Scotland, a programme funded by the Scottish Government to help the country address and prepare for the impacts of climate change, to produce a practical ‘how-to’ guide on values-based...
