With the Climate Protection Act (Klimaschutzgesetz), Germany has committed itself to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 65 percent by 2030 and to be emissions neutral by 2045. However, experts alert that the current emission reduction rates are not sufficient to reach the climate protection goals.
In the efforts to reduce emissions, it is particularly important that the political and (regulatory) legal framework, government support measures and public communication mutually reinforce each other. In this context, it is crucial to ensure that the legal and financial instruments are well communicated so that they are better supported by citizens. Communication measures should aim to inform citizens about the global consequences of climate change and international climate policy, to sharpen the public's global perspective, to ensure public acceptance of climate policy decisions or to motivate citizens to act.
The relevance of effective public climate communication is also underlined by the Paris Agreement and the Framework Convention on Climate Change. Accordingly, the signatory states are required to implement communication measures such as climate-related education programs, information dissemination programs and participation opportunities for coping with climate change, so-called Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE).
Against this background, the German Environment Agency has commissioned the consortium of ConPolicy, klimafakten.de, co2online as well as Christopher Schrader and Dr. Mirjam Jenny to develop a communication concept for topics of (international) climate protection. This concept is intended to help the communication measures reach the general public more effectively and to promote the societal acceptance of climate policy measures. In addition, approaches for a strategy for implementation of ACE for Germany are to be developed.
ConPolicy is the project leader in this project and is primarily involved in the following work steps:
- Gap analysis: ConPolicy analyses the current international climate communication of the German Environment Agency on topics of international climate protection regarding existing strengths and potential for improvement. For this purpose, an analysis grid is developed, and the success factors of effective climate communication elaborated in the first work package are applied to the current communication channels. In addition, expert discussions will be held.
- Implementation of ACE in Germany: ConPolicy develops a concept of how ACE should be implemented in Germany. For this purpose, a requirements analysis will be developed and expert interviews conducted with responsible persons in Germany and actors from international good practice examples.
The project started in March 2023 and is scheduled to be completed in February 2026.
