Handbook of Climate Change Communication: Vol. 3

Sahel is one of the major African drylands whose experience of recurring droughts exacerbates its vulnerability to climate change. Its population is estimated to rise to over 200 million by 2050. This region has attracted attention of the global scientific communities, and for which interventions from scientists, intergovernmental institutions, and government agencies aim at reducing the impacts of climate change in the region. One of the areas that receive least attention is climate change communication in spite of its importance in reaching out to communities. It is also valuable informing other stakeholders of the relevance of indigenous knowledge in addressing climate change crises. Another justification for utilising climate change communication is informed by the huge deficit in real-time ground data, regional and local climate modelling in Africa. This chapter is proposing a framework that prioritises inclusion of local language, creative stories, indigenous climate knowledge and massive online open courses (MOOCs). The chapter further identifies the critical need for all the stakeholders in the region to embrace climate change communication as a link across the divides that have traditionally disconnected local communities, scientists, policymakers and local and global stakeholders. By using this approach, it will immensely help in supporting informed decision on what works best for people, institutions and the environment.

The purpose of this study was to investigate High School (HS) students’ perceptions of Climate Change (CC) and Global warming (GW). This work was conducted within Portuguese High School students and the results in this context should have meaningful implications for national CC policies in the future as well as HS curricula adaptation to the students’ perceptions. Research was conducted at a high school in Central Portugal. The survey was applied to all the high school students from the 10th to the 12th grade, enrolled in the areas of Sciences and Technology, Languages and Humanities, Socio-economical Sciences and Professionalization. The data were collected through a self-completion questionnaire consisting of 29 closed-ended questions and two open questions aiming at characterizing students from the socio-demographic, and from their perceptions, beliefs, motivations, attitudes, knowledge relating to the topic of CC. Google Drive was used to host the questionnaire and allow for the online survey. Statistical exploratory univariate and bivariate analyses were performed on the data collected (frequencies, total and column percentages, adjusted residuals). All statistical tests were two-tailed, with significance levels of 5%. Only statistically significant results were commented on the results section. Majority of students believed that CC was happening and also perceived that human activities were an important cause of CC. Still, the surveyed students hold some misconceptions about basic causes and consequences of climate change. Students’ gender influenced their perceptions of time scale of CC impact on both human and biotic communities. Most students state that their training had focused enough on the topic of CC and felt they had a moderate technical knowledge about the topic of CC (students’ knowledge of how their behaviour influenced CC followed a similar pattern). There was a large conviction that the main actions in mitigating CC effects should be taken by governments and regarding the perception of the importance of CC for their future professional carrier, 48% considered that this topic was “moderately important” and 29% considered it as “very important”. However as individuals, and globally, 74% had not taken actions to mitigate CC (only 26% of the respondents had taken some actions to mitigate the causes of CC). Further research is necessary so that curricula programs can be adequate to promote better knowledge and attitudes about climate change and an active engagement of future participative citizens, as part of the solution for climate change problems.

This paper investigated the livelihood condition and resilience of the people to evaluate their readiness to climate change adaptation and disasters risk reduction in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. A preliminary literature review was carried out to enrich theoretical background and understand the possible impacts of climate change and natural disasters, and strategies of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Based on a comprehensive literature review a conceptual framework was developed to conceptualize the study. Socio-economic condition (e.g. population increase, GDP growth rate, literacy rate) of the people was analyzed to know climate change and disaster preparedness conditions. A household questionnaire survey was conducted to collect information about disaster preparedness and resilience of the people to climate change and disasters. Analyzing data the study found that Bangladesh is a country with low socio-economic development, high poverty, high population density, vulnerable infrastructure, fragile communication system, and political instability. Conducting field survey the study also found that disaster preparedness and resilience of the people are average or below average. Institutional framework and policies, plans, programs are comprehensive and capable of achieving targeted goals and objectives. However, lack of proper integration and coordination, scarcity of resources, lack of transparency and accountability hinder the desired outcomes.

Potential impacts on extreme weather events have been used to underscore the relevance and urgency of climate change. Our research on a local Marikina community’s understanding of extreme flooding events shows that such events are salient to the local community, and can therefore be used as a means to make climate change more relatable. Thus, insights from science communication related to flooding events can be useful in informing climate change communication efforts. This research on a Marikina community’s understanding of extreme flooding demonstrates how messages rooted in empirical research and using “simple language” are not enough. People want to receive practical rather than conceptual, knowledge-based messages in order to take action. This study therefore recommends that researchers should investigate different stakeholders’ understandings of what constitutes good climate change communication and determine the needs of different audiences and their unique cultural standpoints before crafting knowledge-based materials. This research also hopes to encourage further scholarly discussions on striking the balance between giving people what they want to know vs. giving people what science thinks they need to know.

Vox populi says “weather isn’t what it used to be”! Climate change has been preferentially approached regarding the future. Most discussions focus on warming in recent decades and sea mean level rise, leaving aside the fact that climate has been varying over time with different impacts on Earth’s life. It is now possible through several proxies to reconstruct climatic variations in a long-term perspective. History allows to realize how humans faced climatic variations: adapting, migrating or succumbing to them. We are beginning to understand climate influence in the Crusades/Christian Peninsular Conquest and Iberian Discoveries, for example. The better we know the past the better we can have a realistic idea of present and future challenges. Having this in mind, the authors created the first Climate Change curricular unit, in a Portuguese History first degree course. The aim of this chapter is to talk about the experience of using historical examples as a tool to communicate climate change. Being optional in scholar curricula, the course had a good adhesion, attracting students from various areas. Students are eager for these diachronic studies on climate. It is up to professors and scientists to find the better way of giving them the knowledge they seek.

Todays’ youth, living in a world of technology, has become disconnected from the natural environment and the major issues of related concern. Although climate change is one of the major problems the planet is facing, as a matter of personal commitment remains quite inert in most people’s agenda. Climate change needs to be better communicated to young people in order to be tackled successfully in the future. The purpose of this survey is to provide an assessment of an environmental summer camp in Greece, specifically at Skyros Island, regarding children’s knowledge, attitudes and behavior on the crucial issue of climate change. Futhermore, it will be examined whether or not an environmental summer camp could serve as an effective teaching tool on communicating climate change to children, since camps are places where environmental consciousness could easily be supported.

The Paris Agreement on climate change adopted at COP21 can be seen as an endorsement of the communications activities of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). After all, the agreement is science-based and draws on findings of the Climate Panel. And yet the Climate Panel has been criticized—not least by its prime audience of policymakers—for delivering products that are difficult for non-specialists to understand and use. This paper examines the history of IPCC communications, with a focus on the communications activities of the IPCC for the Fifth Assessment Report, including the constraints it operated under and the innovations it made, such as the use of headline statements, video, and an enhanced outreach programme. It also looks at the efforts the Climate Panel is undertaking to make its products more accessible and user-friendly while maintaining their scientific rigour. This includes a review of the discussions and recommendations of the IPCC’s Expert Meeting on Communications, held in February 2016, and how they are being taken forward. It aims to further understanding of the communications work of the IPCC, while locating it in the policy context and the broader activities of climate communications. In so doing it may encourage further thinking on how IPCC communications can be strengthened.

One of the main challenges for communicating climate change is to convey information so that it translates from a merely cognitive exercise to behavioural change and effective action. Recent studies point to the need to better address emotions, norms, values and trust in order to trigger behavioural change. This article explores the potential of performative methods to address this challenge, by documenting the author’s experience as part of a theatre group formed by young sustainability researchers and practitioners. Taking an autoethnographic approach, I first describe the method developed by the group for co-creating plays and performing them at academic conferences. Then, drawing on insights from arts-based research, I identify six performative functions of this communication format: providing access to different ways of knowing and doing, integrating and articulating complexity, humanising discourses, creating a platform for deliberation and promoting self-reflexivity and social learning. Based on the autoethnographic analysis, I argue that performative methods can be a potent tool for science communication to produce knowledge that is transformative. However, bridging the arts and sciences is a time-consuming process, which requires us as academics to engage in the process of questioning our own values and belief systems.

Christians in the United States are perhaps better known as climate deniers than as environmentalists, and Western Christians bear the valid critique of Lynn White, Jr. (1967) regarding an unhealthy anthropocentrism and dualistic view of humanity over nature. A growing network of theologians, ministers, and lay people, however, is working to communicate a different narrative. The field of ecotheology has articulated an environmental ethic based on the Christian worldview. The challenge has been moving ecotheology out of the academy and into the values and behavior of the average Christian. The present study will be useful for those interested in communicating climate change to a Christian audience leading to pro-environmental behavior change. It surveys relevant literature regarding what does and does not work in communicating climate change to American Christians, then provides a case study of the communication strategies of six watershed discipleship practitioners who are reclaiming traditional ecological knowledge and themes of “creation care” within the Christian sacred text. Watershed discipleship communicates climate change utilizing the rhetoric and symbols of Christian tradition, and catalyzes pro-environmental behaviors at the individual, community, and ecosystem scale.

This paper present an overview of the impact of elevated temperature and extreme heat on the safety and wellbeing of outdoor workers in Jizan, Saudi Arabia. Extreme heat exposure, use of personal protective equipment (PPE), task type undertaken, work location, and access to shade and cold water were identified to have direct impact on the workers’ personal levels of heat exposure and thermal discomfort. Considerable number of the participants expressed heat exposure at work as major concern to their health, safety and productivity. The study revealed that workers more susceptible to heat induced ailments were overlooking the severe consequences of heat exposure and lacked proper awareness. In addition, the findings suggest the need to strengthen outdoor workers adaptation strategy through refresher training, and use of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).

Transferring complex scientific knowledge into practice is challenging. This is also the case for know-how on climate change (CC) mitigation in the agricultural sector, which is held responsible for approximately 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Even though numerous mitigation options at the farm level have already been identified, they still lack broad implementation. Serious games have increasingly gained attention as a medium for knowledge transfer on CC mitigation. This paper analyses if such games are also helpful for the transfer of mitigation and adaption knowledge to the actors of the agricultural sector. The paper starts with a short introduction of characteristics of serious games, and an overview of published games on CC with a focus on agriculture. It then presents a game prototype where the players act as farmers who invest a given budget into their choice of CC mitigation measures. Yet, the prototype focuses on mitigation in industrialized agriculture. It was exemplarily played by different target groups (interested lay people, stakeholders). The paper qualitatively presents lessons learned from this attempt to communicate the complex topic via a game approach. These include accounting for previous knowledge, and safeguarding of core messages. This paper might help others who are considering games as a way to communicate their findings.

Climate change education is one of the integral components within the global Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) initiative by the United Nations. However, it is not trivial to bridge the gap between complex scientific information and the requirements of education. Now the educational portal www.​KlimafolgenOnlin​e-Bildung.​de offers a solution by preparing scientific knowledge about climate impacts in Germany for interdisciplinary use in schools. Tailored climate science fundamentals and background information were provided to help teachers and students to develop an understanding of the complex relationships of climate change in different sectors like climate, agriculture and forestry. The strength of this solution lies in its direct regional reference, and the option to interactively explore scientific climate data. It raises awareness for immediate effects of climate change on the individual living environment. This paper outlines the development process for the web portal, and the lessons learned. The underlying development process was based on workshops and surveys with teachers. Teaching material was developed to integrate climate change knowledge into school lessons, such as background information on data uncertainties and scenarios. As one of the results in six “research workshops” conducted students can now explore, compare and discuss climate change impacts in different sectors as well as suitable adaptation measures.

Climate change receives ample attention in academia and media. However, the dissemination of scientific findings to decision makers and the general public is often found wanting. Therefore, it is crucial to effectively communicate climate science, the impacts of climate change, possible solutions, and individual and collective responsibilities to warrant action. The bilingual exhibition “KliMacht | CliMatters” strove to tackle these very challenges, putting young people on the forefront as the primary target audience. The exhibition had over 30 exhibits with an emphasis on interactive objects and games, but also included standalone exhibits and posters. This paper discusses the potential of a museum exhibition to communicate climate change to a general public and spur action against climate change. It describes the scientific design, development and lessons learnt. In specific, it addresses the process of conceptualizing a coherent message and deciding on an exhibition as the medium of communication; challenges faced during preparation of exhibits; collaboration in an interdisciplinary team; and experiences from visitor interaction. Specific exhibits are discussed in detail to help identify effective and non-effective elements with respect to the transfer of knowledge. These insights can serve as a model for future endeavours aimed at communicating climate change.

In the current context of the limited understanding of climate change, universities, among other sectors of society, must help to foster climate change communication. In addition to innovative teaching and research, they may be expected to promote initiatives and strategies towards a better understanding of the multidimensional nature and effects of climate change. By engaging with people who are part of the problem but also those future decision-makers who can offer solutions, universities are ideally situated to increase climate change awareness. Against this backdrop of the climate change communication discourse, this paper analyses a novel experience at the North-West University (NWU) in South Africa. Several activities were undertaken at the Potchefstroom Campus of the university in 2016 as part of the international initiative, “Global Climate Change Week” and under the heading “Ready to Act?” These activities (involving different scholarly fields e.g. arts, natural science, education and law) were organised for the first time and attracted a multidisciplinary group of students, academics and university staff who connected with one another and with the realities, challenges and opportunities of climate change. The experience presented in this paper conceptually highlights the role of universities in promoting communication for a more holistic understanding of climate change. In addition, it shows that universities may offer a meaningful platform for broader and multidisciplinary academic communities to discuss its effects, to emphasise the solutions and, ultimately, to motivate people towards taking action.

Climate change is responsible for mean sea level rise. Coastal flooding and erosion put at risk infrastructures and activities that humans have been developing in the littoral during the twentieth century. Perceptions about this space changed and people forgot that coasts are instable territories. Solutions to mitigate the impacts of climate change in coastal zones are now being searched. Looking back, to the past, can help. For centuries, the fishing communities developed strategies to survive in this hostile environment. Their ecological traditional knowledge can provide practical responses to present challenges. The last IPCC report recognizes that local and traditional knowledge, being a major resource in response to climate change, have not been used consistently. The aim of this chapter is to address the case of the Portuguese fishing populations to show how they developed coping practices using the available resources and simple technical means. Fishers’ key-strategies included special architecture forms, seasonal activities and a specific local knowledge that permitted them to recognized climate and coastline changes. Their lessons are compared to mitigation and adaptation measures being proposed nowadays. This allows to establish which ones are more suited to the Portuguese coast specificity and therefore will probably be more effective. These examples are useful for improving communication with decision-makers and increasing public awareness of future changes stressing the need for a more sustainable development.

The aim of this paper is to extend current research on climate change communication by zoning in on communication about societal responses to climate change or Low Carbon Transition (LCT). Specifically, it contributes to thinking about communication strategies to foster public discussion about reducing carbon emissions. To do so, the research examines how news media represent LCT and thus act as resources for public talk about tackling climate change. This paper argues news media representations of LCT offer essential insights about the range of processes for LCT that are being made publically available and are therefore highly significant in terms of building carbon literacy and broadening public talk about carbon reduction activity. In particular, it highlights why communications strategies for building climate ‘smart’ publics in response to COP21 must consider the implications of how news media normalise LCT as a social issue. Drawing on an Irish case study, this research presents a novel method for analysing press representations of LCT and shows that press treatment constrains carbon literacy by deploying a limited range of topics. The paper concludes by offering insights for communication strategies aimed at building carbon literacy: it highlights that fostering public discussion about LCT can broaden public engagement with climate change.

It is well known that climate change will have effects on society at the end of the century. However, effects are also being perceived in the near future, since climate is already changing and businesses are vulnerable to these medium-range changes. Climate predictions at these medium-range time horizons can help different application areas to anticipate the effects and adapt to climate change. In this context, the concept of climate services arises with the aim to make climate information user-oriented. Despite the recent effort to develop underpinning science for climate services, their usefulness is still not well-known and they have been barely applied in decision-making. Communication and user engagement are fundamental to stimulate the use of climate information by users. This paper presents examples of products tailored to the needs of users in different sectors, providing effective solutions to visualize probabilistic information. Described examples include the visualization tool Project Ukko (http://​project-ukko.​net/​) that provides robust information of the future variability in wind power resources for the renewable energy sector; and an online platform offering the most comprehensive view of the upcoming hurricane activity (www.​seasonalhurrican​epredictions.​org). The latter was designed in close collaboration between climate scientists on one side and representatives of the re/insurance sector and web designers on the other side. Climate services for agriculture through systematic involvement of users in the climate service co-production are illustrated with the experience of the SECTEUR project (https://​climate.​copernicus.​eu/​secteur).

Environmental sustainability is central to The University of Manchester’s core goal of social responsibility, the only university in the UK to have this strategic focus. To contribute to this unique goal, the University has developed the biggest environmental sustainability initiative in higher education—10,000 Actions. Based on the University’s own research, 10,000 Actions gives all staff the opportunity to learn more about sustainability and then develop their own action plan to manage their work-based environmental impact. This paper describes the issues in engaging over 10,000 staff simultaneously on a complicated subject to lead to a change in behaviour, how these issues were overcome, tools that were developed to provide staff with a range of actions that were applicable in their job roles, and the data that has emerged from this ambitious and innovative project. Finally, how this activity can be used to inform institutional strategy is outlined. Experiences conveyed in this paper will be useful to people and organisations interested in how to up-skill a wide-range of different types of staff on climate change to lead to changes in behaviour to tackle one of the world’s greatest challenges.

In the task of ensuring that governments undertake the measures needed to mitigate the impacts of global warming today and in the future, it is necessary to activate the public worldwide to a much greater degree than has been the case over the last 25 years. The IPCC have published five reports providing the world with an objective, scientific view of climate change. Each summarized for policymakers and the press, to facilitate communication to the public. Given the inertia that characterizes the public’s response, it is legitimate to ask if sufficient emphasis has been placed on the means of communication. Whether, in activating the public, where communication takes place and how it is achieved is of equally importance to what is communicated. Museums as institutions have a number of characteristics, individually and collectively, that offer a unique possibility of disseminating both the local impacts of climate change and placing them in the wider context of the international nature of global warming. Examining storytelling as a means of activating local communities, the paper describes a museum project being developed in the Norwegian arctic and a burgeoning international initiative from museum professionals on three continents that aims to bridge the local global gap. The IPCC report for 2018 offers a window of opportunity to activate the global community. The paper concludes by outlining a possible scenario to achieve this, whereby the museum sector, offering both local museums as arenas for dialogue together with an international infrastructure for global communication, could play a significant role.

This paper sets out some reflections on the ways in which museums can approach climate change engagement, based on recent experiences of the re-design of a permanent natural history gallery and a climate change focused exhibition at the Manchester Museum, part of the University of Manchester (Manchester, UK). It emphasises the importance of engaging with people in affective and behavioural (personal action) terms, rather than focussing solely on climate change information. It also emphasises the importance of providing people with opportunities to express their ideas, values and concerns, promoting critical thinking, civic discourse and climate change action. Through providing such opportunities, museums could provide more effective service to society, supporting and enabling positive action directed towards climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the United States public flood insurance and disaster relief programs in the context of current policies that influence current and future policy goals related to climate change. The methodology employed is a case study approach that looks at the historical development of current public flood insurance and disaster relief policy and then places that history in the context of recent and current stated policy goals of mitigating future impacts of climate change. This history is then compared to current understandings of how policy develops, specifically how exiting policies can frustrate new policy directions, which is discussed under the context of climate change communication. The goal is to highlight the importance of looking at the whole of government actions when attempting to incorporate climate change into the public discourse. The critical lesson from this case study is to understand how existing government policies can create incentives that influence perceptions of risk related to climate change, and thus complicate the development of new policy directions. In this example of US public flood insurance and disaster relief, historical treatments of climate-related risk need to be considered when attempting to communicate new understandings of climate change risk.

Istanbul is a center of national and international trade, culture and tourism. Istanbul with its high population, migration rate, being economic and cultural center plays an important role in adaptation and mitigation to climate change effects. Any climate based adverse impact to Istanbul would be destructive for both the city and Turkey. For the sustainability of vital economic, social activities, increasing the resilience of the city is essential. Although Istanbul has an advantage with its economic and social structure, it is highly vulnerable to any destructive external stresses. This study aims to investigate the vulnerability of 11 selected sectors on climate change including health, water resources, energy, transportation, agriculture, public safety, land use and development, materials, infrastructure, ecology and biodiversity and culture of Istanbul. These sectors are examined in 25 selected planning areas with regard to Istanbul’s sectorial development strategies. Those sectors and planning areas may be affected by climate change and critical to health of citizens and the economic viability of the city. Vulnerability assessment defined by ICLEI in the publication of “Preparing for Climate Change; A Guidebook for Local, Regional and State Governments” is deployed as a framework in order to measure the vulnerability of the selected sectors. Using the multi-dimensional methodology, the study aims to develop a vulnerability index and aims to rank the sectors according to their index values. The results of the study reveal the most vulnerable sectors of climate change in Istanbul that address the pathways for the future resilience studies.

Communication between children and adults can play a significant role in evolving understandings of climate change. The Manchester Environmental Education Network (MEEN) is committed to facilitating intergenerational communication around climate change in conjunction with primary and secondary schools in the North West of England, UK. MEEN and academics at the University of Manchester have come together to gain insights into the intergenerational communication that can evolve the understandings that children and adults need to address climate-change related issues. We wish, particularly to understand whether the children-led, knowledge-based approach that MEEN uses on some projects is an effective way of achieving this aim. As a means of exploring this question, the paper uses ‘vignettes’, evocative episodes that act as prompts for analysing the dynamics of the projects. It also draws on a growing body of literature around intergenerational relations relating it specifically to climate change communication (e.g. Mannion 2016; Blanchet-Cohen and Reilly 2016; Wyness 2013). Our explorations of the vignettes have led us to the view that ‘reciprocally responsive’ intergenerational communications is pivotal to negotiating understandings of climate change and how to act in the face of it.