How to flip the narrative on Climate Week conversations

“We have the solutions” was the consensus of the discussion I attended at Wales Climate Week last week. “But how do we get people on board?”

I have heard this debate too many times. As COP29 in Baku gets down to business this week, how engaged are the general public?

One speaker suggested that we work harder to bridge the knowledge gap. I disagree. The data and knowledge sharing approach has led the climate narrative for decades and still fails to capture imaginations. You know what they say about continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different outcome.  

First, let’s break down barriers. The “us” and “them” premise of the conversation points to a compartmentalisation of public and personal lives. The climate crisis calls for a levelling of the conversation. To talk as humans.

Then we (all of us humans) reframe the conversation. Make it personal. Bring it into our bodies. I have two decades in the climate profession, but up until a year ago my own carbon footprint was pretty average. I am human, after all. And stubborn. If someone tries to tell me what to eat, or buy, or do, I usually do the opposite. Even with the facts at my fingertips I was unwilling to change some areas of my life. 

It was disabling chronic illness that transformed my climate impact. I accidently shrunk my climate footprint by a third. A collapsed nervous system that took away my ability to walk, work, or function as parent. A cleaner, greener diet, helped me get well. My habits changed, because my body needed it. This is a really good news story because it feels really good! Being proud of my smaller carbon impact is an added bonus.

I am not the only one motivated by health. Net Zero Industry Wales in their climate communications survey found that 50% considered the health and environmental benefits to be the preferred way of speaking about climate change. So why are 90% of us still talking hard data?

Better climate conversations are human. They start with self. Our health is planetary health. We might accidently save the world by showing up for ourselves.