Communicating climate assemblies
The increased commissioning of climate assemblies – and citizens’ assemblies more generally – has not been matched by an increase in their visibility and resonance among broader publics and key stakeholders. This is deeply problematic because communication is widely recognised as a key enabler of impact for climate assemblies.
Communication is still too often an afterthought: not prioritised, limited budgets and timelines, weak capacity, and a reactive approach that rarely fits the news cycle.
Communicating Climate Assemblies, the latest guidance from the Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies (KNOCA), takes a first step towards a more comprehensive approach to communication, pulling together the diverse experiences of assembly practitioners and organisers. The guidance provides a practical toolkit for designing a communication strategy, acknowledging that each climate assembly is unique and answers to its own set of context-based challenges. It follows a series of steps across an assembly’s lifecycle - before, during and after – helping communicators connect their objectives to the larger question of impact and translating those into a coherent strategy.
Camille Dobler, author of Communicating Climate Assemblies, will present the key elements of the guidance and answer any burning questions. The guidance will be published on the KNOCA website in the run up to the event.