Climate change is a tremendous, abstract, and seemingly distant problem, and much of the time, policymakers and practitioners focus on the threat it poses. This ‘doom and gloom’ narrative does not help us to move the needle on climate change as we might hope. Instead, we would be better off emphasizing the co-benefits of climate action. This will help mobilize more people to participate in climate mitigation and adaptation efforts, both collectively and individually. What are co-benefits? They are “the positive, sometimes unintended, outcomes that arise from sustainability initiatives that go beyond their primary environmental goals”. These could be things like improved public health, green jobs, and financial savings. The idea is to motivate people by drawing their attention to a benefit that is tangible and relatable to them. As I have mentioned in the past, presenting clear benefits to a target audience/priority group is a statistically significant way to achieve successful program outcomes. And this aligns with the second step of CBSM: Identifying barriers & benefits. Here are some examples of co-benefits, to show you what I mean: - Improving energy efficiency of our homes saves money- Driving electric vehicles reduces air pollution- Cycling and walking more reduces pollution and improves our health- Eating a plant-based diet reduces our risk of heart disease and certain types of cancer All of these are examples of ways we can address climate change, but the way they are framed is that they will improve our quality of life in some way. This is much more effective than the current narrative, which presents climate action as a series of disruptions to our comfortable lifestyle, and a burden on society. While global leaders struggle to frame climate action in terms of co-benefits, some cities are doing better. Networks such as C40 are making co-benefits a core part of their climate action plans. Also, the 2020 Carbon Disclosure Report that includes data from cities all over the world, demonstrated that on average, cities that listed co-benefits of climate action reported over twice as many mitigating actions as cities that did not. To read more about co-benefits, consider reading the Behavioral Scientist article here or The Conversation article here.
