Climate Narrative
by Design
A practitioner’s guide in four phases
Because solutions need stories
Introduction
Something fundamental is shifting, and people are sensing it. The world we grew up in no longer serves as a reliable guide to our future. The geopolitical, economic, and ecological systems that shaped the 20th century are all under pressure, with climate change a major driving force.
You can see it in retreating glaciers, in flood insurance premiums, in the agricultural calendars that no longer hold. The case for acting, both to limit further climate disruption and to adapt intelligently to what is already underway, has never been more grounded in evidence. And yet that evidence alone has not been enough to move societies at the scale required.
The gap
If you are reading this, you have likely already tried. You’ve made the case, run the campaign, had the conversations. And yet the gap between what the evidence demands and the changes that are actually being implemented remains difficult to close.
This gap is shaped by many factors, including political, economic, and structural barriers. One factor though stands out as both underaddressed and decisive: the narratives through which people make sense of climate change, its causes, and what responding to it would mean for their lives. Some of the most powerful forces shaping how climate change is understood today are those with the most to lose from faster action. The fossil fuel industry in particular has invested heavily in narratives designed to cast doubt on solutions, neutralize policy responses, and frame fossil fuels as necessary for affordability and energy security. These narratives have been documented across decades and continue to shape public debate today.
A guide for your climate narratives
Changing this requires more than countering bad narratives with better ones. It requires building climate narratives from the ground up, starting with what people already value and believe. But what people value differs. No single narrative works everywhere, which is why this guide starts not with messages, but with context.
This guide takes you through the process of building climate narratives rooted in their audience’s own values — helping communicators show their audience that climate action is the path to what they actually care about, and moving them to act from wherever they stand. Built on existing work in climate communication and narrative change, this guide offers a practical, structured approach to:
- understand the narrative landscape you are working in
- identify what is blocking engagement and action
- imagine futures people want to move toward
- translate those futures into narratives
- activate those narratives in practice
This guide is a collaboration between Femke Bartels of Catalytic and Clima Now, supported by Stiftung Corymbo. We warmly thank everybody who contributed to this project.