Document details

Communicating climate change: A practitioner’s guide. Insights from Africa, Asia and Latin America

ISBN 978-0-620-84052-1

"This guide shares tips for communicating climate change effectively. It is intended for communications practitioners and other champions of climate action working in developing countries. If you have ever tried to explain to colleagues in your organisation, policy-makers, or the broader public how the climate is changing, how it affects them, and what they can do about it, then this guide is for you. Whether you are in government, business, civil society or academia, when we refer to ‘climate communicators’, we are talking about you! This guide is focused on climate communications in developing countries because a large amount has already been written and debated on how best to communicate climate issues in industrialised countries. A large, body of literature centres on convincing a sceptical or apathetic public in North America, Europe or Australasia of the reality of climate change. This guide is written by CDKN’s Knowledge Management and Communications staff, who have been working, by contrast, in dozens of low-and middle-income countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean since 2010. Our communications have aimed to raise awareness of: the physical science of climate change; the impacts of climate change on poverty and development; the potential for building resilience to climate change; and the opportunities of embracing a low-emission economy." (About this guide, page 4)
1. ABOUT THIS GUIDE 4
2. GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION, 8
Developing a good communications campaign
3. GETTING THE CLIMATE CHANGE FRAMING RIGHT, 14
Framing the impacts of climate change and the benefits of adaptation action -- Framing specific adaptation solutions -- Framing specific mitigation solutions -- Linking climate change accurately to extreme weather
4. PARTNERSHIPS FOR IMPACT, 24
Crowdsourcing information to support climate action -- Turning up the volume of voices that haven’t been heard -- Mainstreaming climate messages -- Exposing new angles and telling the human stories through investigative journalism
5. CREATIVE PRESENTATION, 30
Mapping changes in the climate and climate-related hazards -- Mapping climate-related risks
6. ENGAGING WITH PUBLIC POLICY AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION, 34
Appealing across government -- The power of witness -- Role plays put officials in the ‘hot seat’ -- Engaging with opposing views
7. MAKING GOOD SCIENCE GO VIRAL, 38
8. WALKING THE WALK, 40
CASE STUDIES, 44
General principles for good communications -- Getting the climate change framing right -- Partnerships for impact -- Creative presentation -- Engaging with public policy -- Making good science go viral