Communicating Climate Change in Australia

While the science of climate change is established, the communication of the problem and solutions remain relatively misunderstood. With the support of LMCF, the MCCCRH has established three specialist communication programs delivered in the mainstream media to address this knowledge gap. Each of these programs prescribe to the methodology of providing accessible and innovative evidence-based information to facilitate effective decision-making from the community. The first, Climate Communicators, provides climate change graphics to television weather presenters to be delivered in their broadcasts and can be seen currently on the ABC & Seven Network. The second, Changing Climates, publishes 24 weekly climate columns to 1.5 million weekly readers detailing local impacts, emissions and community actions in Leader Community News’ publications across Melbourne. The third, Climatepulse, produces climate-focused episodes of Weatherzone’s Weatherpulse program, using longer-form videos to explore climate impacts on a variety of areas such as health, agriculture and sport. The proposed proactive funding from LMCF would support the interstate expansion of these programs from their incredibly successful pilots in Victoria through its significant potential to leverage and attract further philanthropic and government funding for these programs, support which is already being explored by several departments and trusts.