Key insights from climate communication – and how they can inspire sustainability in higher education
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
ISSN: 1467-6370
Article publication date: 20 April 2023
Issue publication date: 13 November 2023
Abstract
Purpose
To combat climate change and safeguard a liveable future, humanity needs fundamental and rapid social change. The purpose of this paper is to show, why and how climate communication can play an important role to nurture the public engagement needed for this change, and to explore, what higher education for sustainability can learn from climate communication.
Design/methodology/approach
The scientific evidence base on climate communication for effective public engagement is summarised into 10 key principles, including “basing communication on people’s values”, “conscious use of framing” and “turning concern into action”. Based on the author’s perspective and experience in the university context, implications are explored for sustainability in higher education.
Findings
The study provides suggestions for teaching (e.g. complement information with consistent behaviour by the lecturer, integrate local stories and provide students with basic skills to communicate climate effectively), for research (e.g. make teaching for effective engagement the subject of applied research), for universities’ third mission to contribute to sustainable development in the society (e.g. provide climate communication trainings to empower local stakeholders) and greening the campus (develop a proper engagement infrastructure, e.g. by a university storytelling exchange on climate action).
Originality/value
The study provides an up-to-date overview of climate communication research, which is in itself original. This evidence base holds interesting learnings for institutions of higher education, and the link between climate communication and universities has so far not been explored comprehensively.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful for discussions and input from Chris Shaw, George Marshall, Emma James, Susie Wang, Luisa Melloh, Robin Webster, David Powell and Amiera Sawas from Climate Outreach and Carel Mohn, Florian Hörmann, Markus Schmitt, Ursula Rubenbauer and Charlotte Ruhbaum. The comments of two anonymous reviewers have been helpful. This work was done as part of the author’s visiting scientist fellowship at Climate Outreach, Oxford. This fellowship was supported by the University of Applied Science Konstanz, Germany.
Citation
Sippel, M. (2023), "Key insights from climate communication – and how they can inspire sustainability in higher education", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 24 No. 7, pp. 1594-1609. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-07-2022-0208
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited