Informing and engaging citizens on climate change issues

Climate change issues are clearly a growing concern for the public today. In recent years, people have received a great deal of information from media on the causes and consequences of climate changes, but – depending on countries and regions – the understanding of citizens and their engagement in these topics is still varied. Communication professionals are making effort to communicate the messages correctly. This panel session proposes to contribute to a global effort to develop news tools and actions on climate change from “informative” to the “active” procedures through the exchange and dissemination of practices that involve citizens in actions and dialogue.

The session will tackle with the complexity of public communication due to the huge amount of scientific data and the interaction of numerous fields of interest, from the local to the global level. Concerning “active procedures”, new methods – hand-on exhibitions, participative games, local citizens forums and many others– used by the science centres find ways for the public to be effectively engaged in such issues. Changing people’s behaviour – as consumers and as citizens – is notoriously difficult, but many social change campaigns have been wildly successful.

The central issue in this session is to better understand and facilitate the two-ways communication channels between the scientific community and the public. Specific attention will be given to the development of communication tools, fostering a correct and clear information to the non-expert public.