Is there any optimal way to communicate about climate change to inspire pro-climate action?

How often do you hear about climate change? Is it usually bad news, or is the tone more hopeful? Where do you see this information? Who is relaying it? How do you feel, and what are you thinking about, afterwards? These are all questions communicators consider when developing climate change messaging.

Canada has an ambitious climate plan, and achieving it will require actions from all Canadians. Thus, the ultimate goal of many climate change communications is to encourage people, most specifically those who are already eager to do more, to engage in behaviours that can help limit further climate change and protect the environment. With this goal in mind, there is one major question on the minds of many public sector climate change communicators: what is the “best” way to promote action? Should messages about climate change be negative or positive in tone? Where should information be made available, and who should be the messengers? What thoughts or feelings might optimally position those Canadians who want to take action to follow-through? The answers aren’t quite as simple as one might hope.

Let’s focus on the emotional content of climate-focused communications. Conventional wisdom points away from “doom and gloom” messaging, and offers communicators advice to leverage positive emotions (in particular, hope) in their climate change messages. However, evidence from academic research tells a more complicated story. Research studies report conflicting findings — some demonstrating that evoking positive emotions is more effective at prompting climate action than evoking negative ones, with others demonstrating the opposite. The most compelling evidence I have come across in this area suggests that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, and that the emotional content of climate communications should be tailored to suit the intended audience. Which emotion(s) should be evoked may depend on an audience’s thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and even current actions regarding climate change. For this reason, it is vital for communicators to understand their audiences.

What is PARCA?

Enter the Program of Applied Research on Climate Action in Canada (PARCA). PARCA is a multi-year program of research, led in partnership by the Privy Council Office’s Impact and Innovation Unit, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). Now in its second year, PARCA aims to apply behavioural science insights and methods with robust policy analysis to promote climate action.

The first phase of PARCA is a longitudinal, population-based public opinion research study with 2,000+ respondents, to garner insights into Canadians’ thoughts and actions about climate change. Results from this study are helping us understand the diversity of beliefs, thoughts, behaviours, and intentions related to climate change among the Canadian public, and to track changes in these outcomes over time. The work is vital to communications — when we understand how Canadians think, feel, and behave, we can create messaging that will resonate with them.

In addition to the longitudinal study, as part of PARCA, nine Behavioural Science Fellows from PCO’s Impact and Innovation Unit have been embedded in teams across ECCC and NRCan, with more joining in the next few months. The Fellows are responsible for conducting research, including rapid online experiments and field research, to support high priority work. I am a Behavioural Science Fellow embedded within the Marketing and Public Opinion Research team at ECCC. In this role, I am exploring how ECCC marketing efforts can be optimized to encourage Canadians to take pro-climate action. This includes communicating and applying results from the longitudinal survey to the team’s work, as well as conducting novel research. One of my current research projects is investigating how Canadians’ intentions to act to mitigate climate change can be influenced by different emotion-evoking communications. This project will help ECCC understand how different Canadians (who think, feel, and believe different things about climate change) may respond differently to different types of climate-focused messaging, ultimately providing insight into what emotion(s) are most effective in empowering and encouraging Canadians who are already eager to engage in more pro-climate behaviours to take the next steps.

What climate- and communications-focused research is upcoming?

PARCA is just one year old; in other words, as a multi-year program of research, it is just getting started. In the area of climate communications, future studies are planned to investigate how various communications levers can be used to optimize messaging, including ideal messengers, message framings, and more. More broadly, the Behavioural Science Fellows working under PARCA are planning exciting research to explore the motivations for and barriers to engaging in key pro-climate behaviours – including adopting electric vehicles, installing electric heat pumps and reducing energy use in their homes, reducing plastic use and waste, and more — and designing and testing behaviourally informed solutions that could be scaled up to promote greater pro-climate action nationwide.