Climate stories are a form of structured communication designed to share information, experiences, and targeted messages about climate change/adaptation. Ideally, stories are compelling and entertaining and combine text with supporting media or scientific data. The target audience can be the public or specific group(s).
The method (described in the guidebook) enables a stakeholder group (for example municipal employees) to follow co-creation processes and structure story development work to lead to a final climate story product.
The story can be practically implemented in various forms or platforms, for example on commercial platforms such as ESRI storymaps, produced as short videos, podcasts, presentations, comics etc. The story can be used to convey all kinds of important public messages about climate change. Defining the audience and the core message are essential components in the development process so that the story appeals to the audience and the core message can be communicated clearly.
The level of complexity is completely dependent on the ambitions of the story. The development of the climate stories requires an iterative approach between the technical developers and the city representatives. A good and engaging narrative takes time to develop. In addition, access to high quality media (images, maps, plots, videos) greatly improves the ability to create a compelling and impactful story. Implementing the story requires a platform as a basis– this can be as simple as a document, or as complex as a specialised story mapping software.
Each City Hub developed a climate story, where each story focused on a core challenge for the city:
The cities of Logroño, Milano, and Athens focus on heat impacts in their stories. They target citizens and municipal departments to provide insight into the impacts of heat on specific vulnerable groups (children, outdoor workers, elderly). The stories for these cities describe what is being done by the cities and what action citizens and other stakeholders can take to become more heat resilient.
The cities of Lillestrøm, Cork, and Gdynia focus on flooding impacts in their stories. They target citizens, municipal departments, and other relevant stakeholders engaged in city planning. The stories show the impacts of flooding on peoples’ daily lives and explain the actions that can be taken by different types of stakeholders. The stories are also used to explain what the city is doing about flooding and why.
Story telling creates a personal and emotional connection to target audiences. This has the potential to increase the impact of the climate message, as this connection helps to promote a deeper understanding and connection to the message..
Possible benefits are:
Use of the method is free of charge. The cost of implementation depends on the ambitions for the story complexity and the way it is intended to be implemented (platform). For example, a short narrative story to be produced as a basic podcast may be created in just a couple of days. A complex story intended to be produced as a short video film may require weeks or months of preparations, and the assistance of professional film crews, actors etc. In the REACHOUT project, total resources to produce a climate story using the commercial platform ESRI Storymaps was probably equivalent to 1-2 man-months in total per story, with the total production time spread over 4-6 months to accommodate the co-creation activities and iterations of story development
Guide book available to support how to build and communicate a climate story.
• Jan-Willem Anker, CAS
• James Strout, NGI
The method is presented in a downloadable guide book in Zenodo:
Climate Adaptation Services, Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, Anker, J.-W., Body, N. S., Boon, E., van der Horst, S., Oen, A., Salazar, S., Strout, J., & van Veldhoven, F. (2024). How to build a climate story – A practical guide.
The climate story is highly versatile and can integrate the results of any climate tool. Climate tools that produce easy-to-understand visuals are easiest to integrate into a climate narrative. Map-based tool outputs are especially impactful. The creative process of developing a climate story helps identify needs for new outputs or products from the tools, for example developing easy to understand infographics expressing some of the more complicated scientific content of the tools.
During an extreme rainfall event, Jan watches in fear as water rises dangerously close to flooding his apartment. His experience highlights the urgent need for climate adaptation in Gdynia, inspiring the community to take action and build a more resilient future together.
