Eight Principles

for Effective and

Inviting Climate
Communication

AUTHORS CONTRIBUTORS
Rare: Rakhim Rakhimov, Brandon Schauer, Erik Thulin Behavioral Insights Team: Toby Park, Kristina Londakova
Potential Energy Coalition: John Marshall, Jessica Lu
• What is the best thing to say when talking to people about climate action?
• What is the best way to handle this conversation with customers, colleagues,
communities, and the public?

Insights from behavioral science can assist these conversations

to make them more inviting, and ultimately more effective.

Make it about people, not the planet. Forget the distant ice sheets, focus on
what matters to people—their homes, families, livelihoods, communities,
favorite forests, beaches or animals. Bring the distant, long-term and abstract
to here, now and concrete. Connect the dots and show people tangibly how
MAKE IT they and their families are experiencing climate impacts already (most “natural

PERSONAL disasters” are turbo-charged by climate change). Use frames that work well
including highlighting personal benefits: health, cost savings and cool tech like
EVs or solar. Focusing on local impacts with the right characteristics (flooding,
high air-conditioning bills, days your kids can’t play outside) can be particularly
effective at motivating action.

Nobody wakes up in the morning saying “what a great day for some
decarbonization”. It’s helpful to use commonplace frames and terms that get
people’s attention: overheating more than global warming, extreme weather
more than changing climate, air pollution more than emissions. For example,
phrases like carbon neutral and mitigation are not easily understood when
tested with Americans. Simple, clear messages, repeated often, overcome the
language barriers of climate science, so use language that is plain, obvious, and
universal. All audiences react to concepts they already understand, which is why
messages about pollution, fairness, and accountability are shown to increase
MAKE IT support for action. Describing climate change as being caused by, “the man-

ACCESSIBLE made blanket of carbon dioxide that is building up around the Earth and trapping
in heat,” has been shown to be a highly effective frame.

Key to making it accessible is finding creative ways to talk about the issue,
bring a new spin, take a new angle. Try humor or satire (e.g., Florida man is
endangered!) but still treat the issue seriously. Avoid relying on cold jargon and
numbers—temperature and policy references will cause people to disengage
(and yawn). More conservative audiences prefer framing of ‘clean and healthy
air’, ‘protecting family and community’, ‘protecting nature’, ‘job creation’,
‘national security’, and ‘faith and stewardship’.

Direct emotions towards solutions. Emotions like anger, hope, amusement

and pride, if harnessed constructively, can empower people to face the climate
crisis. Most news and mainstream media today is doom and gloom without
offering up solutions. Insights from psychology and the social sciences have

MAKE IT shown that this narrative can make people feel anxious, stressed, fearful or guilty
which, most often, turns people off or disempowers them. Acknowledge the
EMPOWERING severity and urgency of the issue but don’t harp on it too much (many are
already deeply alarmed and experiencing mental health challenges). Focus
instead on helping people imagine an optimistic path forward by showing
them solutions. This is not about sugar coating. Instead, it is about painting a
complete story (challenge plus solutions) that connects emotions to action.
 A key part of making it doable is to give people agency. People with higher
self-efficacy (the belief in one’s capacity to take action) or response efficacy
(the belief that one’s actions make a difference) are more likely than those with
MAKE IT low-efficacy (e.g. those who believe nothing can be done) to take climate action.
To build efficacy through communication, point people towards high-impact
DOABLE climate actions they can take as individuals and as part of their communities.
That said, don’t ask everyone to become an activist right away. A meat-lover is
unlikely to become a vegan, cold turkey (pun intended). Meet people where they
are and help them take gradual steps.

The best science indicates that this is an “all solutions on deck” moment, where
collaboration at all levels of society is required; from individuals to governments
MAKE IT (a good explainer here). Individuals can be part of the solution but must not be

COLLECTIVE blamed for the problem as this causes unnecessary guilt, shame, or embarrassment.
Rather, people must see themselves as part of a larger group taking action that,
collectively, can make a difference.

Social science shows that people are more likely to engage in climate-friendly
behaviors, at home and while traveling, when they think a behavior is “socially
normal.” To make a climate-friendly behavior feel socially normal, give examples
of people already engaged in the behavior, show that more and more people are
MAKE IT engaging in the behavior and demonstrate that society wants people to engage

NORMAL in the behavior. Doing this is important because people often underestimate
how common climate-friendly behaviors have become. Note, this is also why
sharing unfavorable stats (e.g. less than 1% of people have joined a climate
action group) does more harm than good as it signals that climate-friendly
behaviors are uncommon and, therefore, not the norm.

Choose messengers wisely. Bring in trusted, beloved, relatable and diverse

messengers so people can see themselves as part of the movement. The
most impactful climate communications come from “people like me,” who are
MAKE IT affected and care. Messengers are especially effective when they ‘walk the talk,’
Note that climate scientists and immediate family members (including children!)
TRUSTWORTHY are regarded as the most trusted messengers on climate. This means that any
other messengers (e.g. celebrities, athletes, influencers) used in climate content
should be in a listening, learning or modeling role rather than an expert role, and
that one’s family members have a surprisingly strong influence.

To engage all audiences in climate, focus on commonalities as opposed to

differences. That means not giving the debate an unnecessary spotlight.
Referencing denial arguments, even to shoot them down, can give the arguments
MAKE IT an unnecessary spotlight when 99.9% of scientists agree on climate science

FOR EVERYONE and >70% of people globally want to see climate action. If it’s necessary to
mention climate misinformation, do so by preemptively warning that only a
small % of people believe it, and only a small number of actors (e.g. the Carbon
Majors) perpetuate it.

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