Introduction to the Research Handbook on Communicating Climate Change

Abstract

This chapter is an introduction to the field of climate change communication research. It contextualizes the importance of climate science, politics, psychology and communication science in understanding how the climate crisis is communicated. The contemporary nexus between politics and science is highlighted as one of the main challenges for communicators and policymakers on national and international scales. Comparing the political and discursive responses to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 with responses to climate change reveals the source of many of the communication problems. But the chapter also argues that understanding interpretive audiences in both sectoral and public communication is a precondition for evaluating the effectiveness of campaign communication, as much as the relevance of different kinds of climate reporting. Visual communication of climate change is explored as well as health and justice forms of message framing. The relevance of climate fiction, theatre and film is also outlined.