Search Climate Insights Directory
28 documents from ACT Climate Labs
How to Talk About Aviation with Persuadables to Build Support
ACT Climate Labs partnered with Climate Catalyst and Walnut Unlimited to conduct research on communication strategies for aviation's climate impact. The project aimed to identify specific narratives and frames that would resonate with the general public and 'hard-to-reach audiences' to build support for climate action policies targeting the aviation sector.
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Document type: Case study
Misinformation Alert: Heat Pumps
The document outlines how heat pumps are targeted by 'Cost of Net Zero' misinformation, which portrays them as expensive, inefficient, and unsuitable for certain homes. It provides factual rebuttals—such as the potential for £340 savings when replacing G-rated boilers and the ability of pumps to operate at -25 degrees—and advises communicators to use positive case studies and avoid social media algorithms to reach 'Persuadables'.
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Document type: Guide
Strategic guide: Speaking to Persuadables during the general election
The document argues that individuals termed 'Persuadables' experience election years differently than active climate movement participants and suggests that understanding their perspective is essential for strengthening the mandate for climate action regardless of the election outcome.
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Document type: Guide
How to talk to Persuadables about transport
The document argues that reducing petrol car use is essential for the UK to meet its Paris Agreement commitments, citing the Climate Change Committee's recommendation for "fewer car miles travelled" and the Department for Transport's goal of an "accelerating modal shift to public and active transport". It highlights the communication challenges associated with these goals, noting how Oxford's traffic filter system in 2023 was misconstrued as "15 minute cities" and became a "global conspiracy". The guide aims to provide tactics to discuss scientifically necessary transport changes without triggering a "culture war" among Persuadables.
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Document type: Guide
Advertising guide: How to overcome your fear of non-digital advertising
The guide distinguishes between 'above the line' advertising (TV, out of home, press, and radio) and 'below the line' methods (social media, digital, and mail campaigns). It notes that the climate sector typically favours below the line methods due to misconceptions about budget and timeline constraints, and aims to debunk these myths to help NGOs increase campaign effectiveness.
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Document type: Guide
Misinformation Alert: Four misleading food and climate narratives
The document highlights the critical link between food systems and climate change, noting that while agriculture is a high environmental cost and vulnerable to rising temperatures, misinformation is increasingly shaping the views of 'Persuadables' on climate action. It aims to equip communicators with strategies to address four major misleading narratives in the food and climate information environment.
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Document type: Briefing
10 research-driven ways to supercharge your climate comms
The document outlines ten strategies to make climate communications more effective for 'Persuadables' in the UK. Key recommendations include leading with personal benefits rather than climate science, avoiding adversarial approaches to misinformation, and removing middle-class 'class codes' by using diverse, non-London-centric messengers. It suggests engaging men through manual job market opportunities, platforming non-white voices to address historical mistrust, and using humor to increase approachability. Additionally, the guide advises matching hope with concrete plans, leveraging hyperlocality to tap into community pride, broadening the definition of 'climate action' to include community-led efforts, and utilizing traditional media channels like local newspapers and billboards over social media, which was found to be the least trusted channel.
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Document type: Guide
Strategic guide: can ChatGPT help us improve climate comms?
The document introduces ChatGPT as a tool for climate communications, detailing its application in analyzing web-based media sources and using personas based on the British press to understand bias.
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Document type: Guide
Strategic Guide: Crisis communications during misinformation spikes
The document is a strategic guide designed to help climate organisations manage crisis communications during spikes of misinformation. It uses the example of '15-minute cities' in Oxford, which evolved from a traffic calming scheme into an international conspiracy theory, to illustrate the need for resilience. The guide offers tips for creating a crisis communications plan, an analysis of why the 15-minute city theory is effective, and five specific actions for responding to misinformation crises.
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Document type: Guide
Positive storytelling to combat heat pump misinformation: An advertising case study
The case study examines a collaboration with the Local Storytelling Exchange to promote heat pump installation to tradespeople through a 38-second video on green reskilling. The campaign found that Facebook's advertising algorithms, targeting mechanisms, and political categorizations hindered the ability to counter topical misinformation, particularly when operating with a small budget.
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Document type: Case study
Creating hope for a green industrial future in the West Midlands: An advertising case study
The case study details a £300,000 advertising campaign in the UK's West Midlands that used green economic growth narratives to increase hope for a green future, reporting that nearly twice as many people felt hopeful after seeing the campaign.
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Document type: Case study
Positive, personal storytelling on insulation - before misinformation sets in: An advertising case study
The case study describes a collaboration with the Local Storytelling Exchange that used a 35-second video on Facebook to promote the cost effectiveness of home insulation. The campaign aimed to establish positive narratives before misinformation could embed itself, resulting in more than twice as many people agreeing with the key message.
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Document type: Case study
Enabling local climate action with trusted messengers and positive messaging: An advertising case study
The case study describes a collaboration with the NGO Possible to run a multi-channel campaign in Birmingham featuring local residents. The campaign aimed to reframe the concept of car-free cities to encourage 'Persuadables' to change their transport behavior. Results indicated that individuals who related to the campaign were more likely to change their behavior, highlighting the importance of locality, messaging, and trusted media in driving local climate action.
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Document type: Case study
Audience Insights: Climate and Faith
The document outlines strategies for engaging people of faith in England and Wales regarding climate change, noting that 56.8% of the population identifies with a faith. It highlights the effectiveness of frames like stewardship and moral challenge, warns against language involving judgment or the word 'religion', and recommends centering campaigns around local faith leaders and centers.
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Document type: Guide
Misinformation Alert: Renewables are falsely linked to the energy crisis
The document identifies a trend of disinformation in the UK where the current energy crisis—driven by high gas prices and Russia's invasion of Ukraine—is being falsely blamed on renewable energy and climate solutions to alienate 'Persuadables' from climate action.
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Document type: Briefing
Audience Insights: Meet the Persuadables in the UK
The document identifies 'The Persuadables' as 69% of the UK population who are neither climate activists nor deniers. Through qualitative research with urban residents in Newcastle, Black and South Asian communities in Birmingham, and rural dwellers in Yorkshire, the report finds that these groups often feel unrepresented by politics and distrust current climate spokespeople, whom they perceive as 'liberal elites' or 'snobs'. The research highlights that the cost of living crisis is a primary concern that overshadows climate change and suggests that trust is higher for messengers like farmers, union representatives, and specific media personalities such as Adam Henson.
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Document type: Guide
Misinformation Alert: Extreme Weather
The document analyzes the discourse surrounding Storm Eunice and the 2022 heatwave in the UK, noting that while the heatwave drove higher climate-related engagement and polling spikes, 'Persuadable' audiences often responded with denial or dispassion. It suggests that climate NGOs avoid direct climate narratives during peak heat events, instead focusing on safety advice and emotional support, before introducing scientific facts and long-form content once the weather subsides.
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Document type: Briefing
Misinformation Alert: Conservative Leadership Race
The document warns that the progress made on climate policy under Boris Johnson may be at risk during the Conservative leadership contest. It identifies 'Backbone Conservatives' as a key target audience for candidates who might 'soften their stance on climate' to secure support from the right wing of the party.
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Document type: Briefing
Misinformation Alert: Corporate Greed
The briefing identifies an opportunity for climate policy communicators to leverage public perceptions of corporate greed among 'Loyal Nationals' and 'Disengaged Battlers' to combat right-leaning news efforts to derail support for the windfall tax on oil and gas companies. It suggests this framing can be used to fight anti-Net Zero rhetoric and inform the design and communication of future climate policies.
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Document type: Briefing
Misinformation Alert: Beware The Eco Mob
The document warns that describing climate activists as 'vandals' or 'mobs' dehumanises them and may discourage 'Persuadables' from engaging with environmental spokespeople. It calls for the condemnation of these tactics and the use of practical messaging to counter misinformation.
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Document type: Briefing