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Climate change is not often framed positively, but to have success in motivating climate action, this is exactly how we must communicate it.

One of our national heroes, Sir David Attenborough, broke the internet five years ago when he joined Instagram. At the time, he set the Guinness World Record for the quickest account to reach 1 million followers. In his introductory video, he stated that “Saving our planet is now a communications challenge. We know what we need to do, we just need the will to do it.”

With this quote, David (yes, I hope writing this blog does now put us on a first-name basis) highlighted that we already have the scientific proof that the climate is changing. Instead, the new challenge is how to communicate this fact in a way that behaviour can change accordingly.

The almost uniform approach by mass media and scientists has been alarmist when referring to the ‘climate crisis’ or ‘climate catastrophe’. The intention is to shock the audience into changing their behaviour. But this doomist narrative can have an adverse effect on audiences, as apathy develops from a feeling of “well, what can I do?”.

The doomist narrative is compounded by contrasting political rhetoric and responses. On the one hand, climate change doesn’t exist, and on the other, we aren’t doing anywhere near enough to respond to it. Not only does this foster confusion, but the growing polarisation in society tends to drive people to argue for their political camp, rather than discuss solutions which could improve collective living standards.

With the status quo leaving the populace frozen, it’s clear that we need to adopt alternative approaches. The following advice on how to communicate climate change builds on themes of positivity, consistency of messaging, and maximising the relevance for the audience.

David adopts this approach in his new Oceans documentary, which focuses on the resilience of oceans and optimism around their regeneration. This resilience and optimism, he hopes, is something which humans can adopt when mitigating and adapting to climate change.

How to effectively communicate climate change to large and diverse audiences

The primary focus needs to be on empowering, not paralysing your audience. A 2021 study which analysed over 100,000 articles found that overly dramatic language decreased the reader’s motivation and belief in climate action.

Environmental journalist Andrew Revkin has embraced the term ‘start’ in his work. For more than 30 years, he says, environmentalism has been framed by the word ‘stop’ (we must stop fracking, polluting, burning fossil fuels, etc.), but by replacing it with ‘start’, audiences can be inspired to adopt new, more sustainably minded, actions, such as starting to walk, cycle or use public transport more.

To ensure climate action grows, consistency of positive messaging is important. A survey conducted in 2022 drew a correlation between solution-focused storytelling and support for climate policies. For instance, updates on positive stories like the success in single-use plastic reduction or the repair of the ozone layer are rarely shared. However, if there were a consistent stream of updates on the success of our efforts, audiences would feel empowered to achieve greater successes.

Currently, mainstream media largely fails to report on climate action. In 2022, the four largest American television news broadcasters – ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox – devoted 1.3% of their airtime to covering climate change. Sadly, this figure represented an all-time high in America. Moreover, the focus was predominantly on extreme weather events. This is an ineffective communication approach, as these news stories foretell an impending apocalypse without reference to how the events can be mitigated or successfully managed.

Finally, climate communication needs to recognise what is relevant to the audience. An analysis on climate attitudes in eight countries found that “people are most interested in climate news that intersects with local news (52%) and weather (54%), emphasising the importance of personal relevance.” In this framing, climate change is less conceptual, as the audience interacts with the topics of discussion. Hence, they are personally invested in any changes that might occur, making them more likely to act.

How to tailor communication to more targeted audiences

Approaching more targeted communication has a method to it. The initial stage of identifying those who you can most easily influence is often overlooked or assumed. However, understanding your sphere of influence enables you to recognise where you have authority to inspire and drive climate action.

Once recognised, it is important to identify what is relevant to the individuals or group of focus. For instance, communicating climate change to a manager and a parent would likely go very differently. To a manager, you might stress how climate action will future-proof your business. Whereas, to a parent, you could focus on the importance of securing a safe future for their children and grandchildren.

Co-benefits are an extremely valuable tool when tailoring your communications to audiences with different priorities. These are the intended or unintended positive effects that one action might have on other objectives. For climate action, co-benefits are well documented in health, personal finance, and at work. By communicating these co benefits (i.e., reducing electricity usage to save money), one can promote climate action without necessarily even mentioning climate change. This approach connects to your audience where their priorities lie, rather than challenging any stigmas they might have.

Navigating disinformation and social media

Nowadays, it would be impossible to write a blog on climate communication without mentioning social media. The reaction to my friend David’s post five years ago demonstrates the power of social media for capturing a vast audience. Keeping pace with the evolving ways people consume information is now as much a part of the communications challenge as crafting messaging that is empowering and relevant.

However, social media has also become a haven for disinformation. Efforts to intentionally mislead and deceive the public create new hurdles that effective climate communicators must overcome. The end of fact-checking programmes by Meta has made this harder. Fact-checking what you read and what you share, before you share it, is essential. You can also use the Fact, Myth, Fallacy model to rebut disinformation – lead with the fact, explain the myth, and why it isn’t true, by explaining the logical fallacy.

Combining these tools will put you in good stead to heed David’s call to action and become effective climate communicators alongside him.