Communicating Climate Change Adaptation. State of the Art and Lessons Learned from Ten OECD Countries

Over the last years, communicating climate change adaptation has gained increasing attention in science and practise. This paper provides an overview of existing adaptation communication formats in ten OECD countries and offers recommendations for their successful design. Via online search we identified 278 communication formats on climate change adaptation. Based on a literature review and a consultation process with climate and communication experts from science and practise, a list of 16 success factors for adaptation communication was compiled with regard to communication content, target group adequacy, adaptation motivation and communication evaluation. Using the success factors as evaluation criteria, we analysed the 278 formats. The analysis yields 13 good practise examples that can inspire future adaptation communication. Following our discussion which of the success factors have not yet been sufficiently addressed we propose going beyond the content level and address emotions, norms and values as well as making use of trusted messengers.