Welcome to the course
How can we foster an informed attitude to climate matters? In this course, you’ll find out how to make climate considerations not only a first thought, but a default approach to every element of our businesses, our daily lives and our plans for everyone’s future.
When we need to communicate and engage with people about climate change, it can feel very daunting, especially when we want them to change their behaviour and buy into our product or idea.
This course explores engagement from a different angle. It introduces a transdisciplinary approach that integrates traditional messaging, behavioural and systems innovation approaches but also taps into an often-ignored psychosocial perspective.
It features the powerful Quadrants of Engagement tool developed by psychologist and climate strategist Dr Renée Lertzman. Her work, Engaging with Climate Change – How we think about engagement (2013, Skoll Global Threats Fund), and her additional research, is an inspiration for this course, and her contributions to the design and content have made this course possible.
Throughout the course, you will find a number of worksheets that are useful, although not compulsory, to complete the course successfully.
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Discuss why presenting facts about climate change or using fear tactics often fail to engage, persuade or facilitate behaviour change
- Describe why engagement on climate change is far more than a messaging exercise
- Apply the Quadrants of Engagement mapping tool to identify where you may have gaps in your current engagement efforts
- Explain how psychosocial aspects of climate change, such as conflicts, denial, ambivalence, and cognitive dissonance, mean we need a more empathetic approach when talking about climate change
- Plan engagement campaigns that take into account all four Quadrants of Engagement.
In this first week, we will discuss:
- The engagement challenge
- Can people really change?
- Why are people not ‘engaged’ with climate change?
- How climate change is communicated
- And we explore how the Three A’s can help to engage people with climate change.
Real Climate Action: How to Engage People in Climate Change
Real Climate Action: How to Engage People in Climate Change
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