Unlocking Climate Communications

On March 26, 2021, the RAPID Climate Action Network hosted a half-day Hackathon to bring 40 people representing local and regional governments, professionals, businesses, and nonprofits together to work through one of the most challenging areas in Climate Action - communications. This storymap provides the details about the meeting as well as the key findings and ideas that were generated. We have provided video excerpts, meeting resources, and information on the next steps.

We have the technical capabilities and resources to address climate change - but we are missing the political and social will to make the aggressive changes necessary. The RAPID Climate Action Network Advisory Group identified the need to unpack this consistent barrier to successful climate action - ineffectual communications and messaging. We identified the need to surgically dissect common "stuck points" for local government staff and nonprofits and develop a communication strategy to empower, influence, and build advocacy with decision-makers, community members, and others.

We hear that people are ready for change and then... (Pick your favorite excuse)

• It is not a good time.
• It is going to cost too much.
• I would do it, but the board/constituents/shareholders don't agree.
• I need some more data.
• We really need to work on (insert other priority) right now.

The question we posed for the Hackathon is how do the doers, like you, get the "permission" needed to move faster and bigger on climate change? How do we bring in decision-makers as advocates and community members to support the efforts?

We used MURAL to capture people's ideas and conversations. An image of the MURAL is provided below as well as a link to view and zoom in on each section to learn more. Highlights from the MURAL are incorporated in this Storymap.

"We cannot make individuals responsible for solving climate change!"

1. Effective climate communications don't exist right now.
2. We need to drastically transform how we talk about climate, the issues, and solutions.
3. There is a need to establish some universal messaging and at the same time recognize that each audience may have very different needs.
4. While we now have a majority of Americans who believe in climate change, the ability to meaningfully engage them in changing their own behavior, and becoming active players in advocacy is not feasible.
5. Climate does not have to be (and probably should be) the central message.
6. We need more clear, truth-focused discussion and less apologizing and softening the needs.
7. Holding leaders and doers accountable is critical - we cannot allow people to pass the buck.
8. We need to build on shared values and connect to those issues that are relevant to daily life - this is true for decision-makers, doers, and community members.

What is next for the RAPID Action Climate Network and Climate Communications?

Create a vision that people can relate to and support

1. Fall 2021 - Launch the Five Truths Climate Truth Telling Social Media Campaign
2. Focus on influencing Decision Makers and supporting Doers
3. Create a toolkit that Doers can use to customize a message and be Climate Truth Tellers - and keep their jobs, build coalitions, and bigger action
4. Work with our network and colleagues to establish accountability measures and a campaign to move decision-makers to Climate Leaders

We will be testing several versions of the Draft Five Truths Campaign attached below this fall. If you want to be involved, let us know! info@rapidclimateaction.net

To prepare for the Hackathon, we did some research and analysis of what is going in the world of Climate Communications. There are some essential baseline knowledge that is important to ground this work.

Tom Geary with the  School of Thought  provided insights into how we can create better, more effective communications. His presentation is linked below. He offered 4 communication failures and 3 key principles to better messaging.

1. It's not about you (or me). When evaluating messaging, be the You at home, not the You at work.
2. Don't mistake information for communication. If you want to get to the brain, you need to go through the heart.
3. Too many points, no impression.
4. Break outside of the boardroom. Everything looks great in the boardroom, but it needs to work in the real world.

1. Getting attention must be your first priority. The details don't matter compared to getting attention.
2. Be distinctive in the category - or overall. If everyone on the team likes it, you're playing too safe.
3. Make it accessible. And humor helps.

To help streamline the conversation and understanding how to develop better communications, we created four personas:

• John Jacobs, The Doer - A dedicated staff person trying to make a difference in climate action.
• Jane Judicious, The Voter - A relatively typical person who votes and cares about climate - but is not quite sure how to really do something bigger.
• James Jaded, The Decision Maker - He has a lot on his plate and trying to do a good job - but doesn't like change.
• Jae Jewel, The Climate Leader - A dedicated and vocal advocate for climate change action.

What we have seen to date is largely big goals being set and incremental steps that fall significantly short of what needs to be done. Why is that? The graphic below highlights some of the reasons this happens. A vicious cycle of low commitment, fear of reprisal for pushing for more aggressive action, other short-term priorities, and lack of accountability, just to highlight a few.

At the hackathon, we explored this dynamic to set the stage for how we might be able to change this vicious cycle.

The group collaborated to better understand how each of our persona contribute and act in this complex dynamic between Doers - Community Members - Decision Makers - Climate Leaders. The image below is the MURAL exercise. Following are the big takeaways.

John, The Doer

• He is afraid to talk about climate change truthfully and keep his job
• Wants to move faster and bigger but he needs permission from a decision maker
• Frustrated
• Needs to get engagement from the community but difficult to have meaningful and valuable discussions
• He has to stay in between the lines - real and perceived

James, The Decision Maker

• Short-term thinking and motivated by special interests and vocal constituents needs
• Lots of other competing priorities, including re-election
• He is a bottleneck and lacks accountability
• Passive support of climate change with little actual investment
• Status quo is the least difficult
• Can make big goals for 2050 - he won't be in place to have to make them happen

Judy, The Voter

• Is not an active participant in local politics/civics
• She is doing her part - recycling, solar panels, etc. and does not need to be more (won't be more involved)
• She is not experiencing real consequences of climate change
• She doesn't want to rock the boat
• She does not have the tools or training to suggest or advocate for solutions unless presented to her

Jae, The Climate Leader

• She is an outlier that people respect but don't necessarily actively support
• Is frustrated with lack of change
• She is seen as a modern day Cassandra - truth-teller about prophecies that are not believed.

Dig into the Hackathon's Discussions. The following are the detailed notes and summaries of the discussions for each persona. We were only able to record Judy's segment, linked below.

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