Effective communication of climate risk and adaptation strategies is essential to ensure informed decision-making, community engagement, and resilience building. This module explores the importance of communicating climate risk and adaptation for local authorities and outlines the necessary components for effective communication strategies. In order to reach a broader audience, climate risk information should be communicated in a clear and accessible manner. While complex climate data are provided by technical experts, these can represent a barrier both for local authorities and citizens. In this regard, it is important to communicate using various formats to reach diverse audience, combining both language and visuals such as maps and infographics.

Climate change is one of the most pressing and critical challenges of present time, yet effectively communicating its risks remains difficult. Climate communication is more than just presenting scientific data and evidence; it involves crafting messages that resonate with diverse audiences, drive understanding, and inspire action. Effective communication ensures that individuals, communities, and policymakers understand the urgency of climate risks and the importance of taking actions towards mitigation, adaptation and resilience. Successful communication can foster informed decision-making at all levels, strengthen public support for climate policies and initiatives, and empower communities to take action to adapt and reduce risk.

According to research, there are several barriers challenging the communication of risk associated with climate change. Many of these are cognitive and emotional barriers that influence how people perceive and respond to climate risk. These include phycological distance (climate change is perceived as abstract and distant, both in space and time), cognitive overload (the amount and complexity of information receive is overwhelming), negative emotional responses (clime change often may evoke fear and helplessness), as well as the inherent difficulty in communicating uncertainty due to the complexity of systems and variability of possible scenarios. Other reasons that hamper successful climate risk communication may include political polarization, confirmation bias (the tendence to seek information that aligns with preexisting beliefs), and amplified misinformation.

There are several evidence-based principles that can be deployed by communicators, climate scientists and policymakers when talking about climate change and its risk.