Communicating Climate Crisis: action-based framing workshop

The Grand Challenge on Climate Crisis is running a workshop for UCL staff on how to communicate about climate change so that it drives action. The interactive session will be designed and delivered by the UCL Climate Action Unit.

Who is this for?

The workshop is for any UCL staff who regularly engage about the subject of climate change, and non-academic professionals whose roles include comms on climate change. It will be of interest for roles that involve writing publications, interacting with policy makers, or publicly speaking about climate change.

Why is it needed?

Most communication on climate change talks about it as a problem with frightening impacts (which it certainly is). For some people, this communication style can put fire in their bellies to act. However, there’s substantial scientific evidence that doom & gloom stories drive a range of other unhelpful responses across audiences: despair, paralysis, a sense of ‘it’s too late’, or even outright denial.

A change in practice can enable us all to talk about climate change in a way that doesn’t make people bury their heads in the sand. The alternative is to convey stories of the actions that people are undertaking to tackle climate change in their own context, whether as citizens, as professionals in a certain sector, or as consumers. This is known as using an ‘action-based’ framing.

What will the event involve?

13:00- 14:00: optional pre-workshop lunch
14:00-17:00 (workshop)
Part 1: Introducing concepts from neuroscience and psychology on how certain styles of communication influence people's sense of 'knowing how to act’
Part 2: Practical session to apply action-based framing to real-world examples
Refreshments: time to discuss ideas and get to know each other in the UCL climate community

Registration

Please register with your UCL email address. This event is for UCL staff only (unfortunately, we cannot accommodate PhD, Masters and Undergraduate students at this event): https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/923676580517