By Leane de Laigue (Head of Communications at Climate Outreach) presented at the 2018 Campaigning Forum in Oxford (April 2018) Overview Climate change demands a response across society, from people of all ages, faiths, nationalities and sides of the political spectrum. Public engagement underpins all climate solutions – and yet most climate change communication is not only ineffective but counterproductive, working only for the minority of people who consider themselves environmentalists. Climate Outreach’s team of social scientists and communication specialists work with organisations to help them communicate about climate change in ways that resonate with the values of their audiences and inspire them to action. Join Leane de Laigue, Head of Communications at Climate Outreach, to hear about how we’re reaching beyond the choir, in particular through our work with centre-right audiences and our Climate Visuals project. About Léane de Laigue Head of Communications at Climate Outreach, Léane brings over 15 years of international experience in environmental communication and marketing. Prior to joining Climate Outreach, she lived in Vancouver where she worked at the David Suzuki Foundation as well as teaching Environmental Studies at a secondary school. Before that, she worked in London as a Marketing Manager for Johnson & Johnson. She holds a Master’s in Environment & Management and a B Ed (Canada), an MBA in Marketing (US) and a B.A in Humanities (France). She is a native speaker of English and French.

1. @ClimateOutreach
www.climateoutreach.org
Climate communication:
reaching beyond the choir
Fairsay eCampaigning Forum
Oxford, 11 April 2018
Léane de Laigue

2. Climate Change Communication...

3. About Climate Outreach

4. Communication is complex

5. Agenda
• Climate silence
• How NOT to communicate about climate
change
• Our centre-right work
• Our Climate Visuals project

6. Climate Silence

7. Discussion - with a neighbour
• Do you ever talk about
climate change?
• If so, how often, with
whom, in what ways?
• What are some reasons
people don’t talk about
climate change?

8. What are some reasons people don’t
talk about climate change?
• Don’t think it’s happening
• Don’t think it’s relevant to them
• Don’t know enough about it
• Don’t like talking about scary things
• Don’t know what to do about it
• Don’t like feeling guilty about it
• Don’t think other people care

10. How NOT to communicate
about climate change

11. Discussion - with a neighbour
What are some ways of communicating
about climate change that might be
ineffective and even counterproductive?

12. Doom and gloom

13. Just facts and graphs

14. It’s your fault

15. Psychological Distance

16. Focusing on financial incentives

17. Communicating about climate
change with people of
centre-right values

18. Importance of messengers

19. Feedback loop

20. Political polarisation
At the Climate March
in New York in
September 2014

21. 4 key centre-right values

22. Strong Communications say...

23. The Climate Coalition’s ‘For the
Love of’ campaign

24. Climate Visuals

25. Why Climate Visuals?
Chapman, DA.; Corner, A; Markowitz, E; Webster, R. (2016).
Climate visuals: A mixed methods investigation of public
perceptions of climate images in three countries Global
Environmental Change 41, 172–182.

26. Tell new stories

27. Spencer Thomas© Francis R Malasig

28. Show real people

29. Show real people
People interacting with
renewable energy
“It looks like real
work is going on”

30. Show climate causes at scale
“[this] is not climate change
because that’s normal to drive a
car. We can’t stop that. It’s normal.”
Images of congested
highways scored well on
desire to change behaviour
across the political spectrum

31. Be careful with protest imagery
“...probably used the
same face paint to
paint himself at the
Glastonbury music
festival this weekend,
and rubbed out climate
and put Kanye West.”
“either hipsters trying
to be cool or... lunatic
extremists.”

32. Be careful with protest imagery

33. Thank you!
leane.delaigue@climateoutreach.org
Follow us on twitter: @climateoutreach & @climatevisuals
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