A WAGA report on how to engage the community in climate action has been prepared for use in council programs. Sam Keast, a Victoria University Master of Psychology student, undertook a placement with WAGA in 2015-16 and conducted the research for ‘How Well Are We Adapting?’ This is WAGA’s project to develop a framework for the region’s councils to monitor, evaluate and report on climate change risks, impacts and responses.
The research builds on WAGA’s understanding of attitudes and perceptions towards climate change in the region. Specifically, it helps answer the question of how to communicate about climate risks and impacts so that people feel empowered to act.
The research confirms what many of us know anecdotally. People respond differently depending on their values. Targeting short term benefits, like cost savings from reducing energy, does not necessarily result in sustained buy-in. Instead, we should target people’s values and identities and link climate change to ‘social norms’. The research shows that talking to people in language that makes climate change personal, aligned with their values and based on day-to-day impacts – rather than distant and global threats – is most effective. And it’s important to give people a pathway or course of action. We can’t just raise a sense of threat or concern; we need to provide solutions. Otherwise, people switch off.
This understanding will help WAGA in designing a public reporting tool for ‘How Well Are We Adapting?’ The tool will be a web-based platform to let the community know about risks and impacts in the region, give information about how to respond and also how the WAGA councils are addressing the need for adaptation. In the first year, the tool will provide a regional overview of impacts and a snapshot of responses. Over time, it will be developed to show trends in the impacts and details of how councils are addressing climate change in key service areas.
The research report, ‘How Do We Talk About Climate Change?’ is available here.
