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# Banter 139:   30Sep26 Climate Change from a younger viewpoint, with Chih-Hsuan Chang

climate change awareness, from engagement to meaningful action, awareness and engagement, extreme weather, perceived hypocrisy, pursuing a career and climate activism.

{% embed url="<https://youtu.be/EzlwR5tk-HI>" %}

#### Video Timeline:

00:00 - 23:34 Presentation\
23:34 - 56:11(end) Q & A

***

#### Presentation:

{% embed url="<https://pub-9ddb403de2ff40f3bd1a5612014bb288.r2.dev/Climate%20Change.pptx>" %}

You are welcome to view and/or download this presentation.  A markdown copy (text only) is available at the end of this page

***

#### Meeting Summary:

Sep 30, 2026 11:54 AM LondonID: 834 5460 8536

### Quick recap

The meeting focused on climate change awareness and the challenges of moving from engagement to meaningful action. Chih-Hsuan presented a three-part talk on physical climate challenges, the role of awareness and engagement, and the gap between individual action and systemic implementation. She highlighted how extreme weather in the UK has made climate change more tangible and discussed the invisible environmental footprint of AI. Chih-Hsuan emphasized the need for a balance in communication to avoid crisis fatigue and noted that visible, local results can make action feel more achievable. Frank and Sue shared experiences from screening the People's Emergency Briefing film, noting that repeat screenings increased attendance but collective action remained difficult to mobilize. Younger participants, including Katie and Tegen, discussed the frustration of perceived hypocrisy among those in power and the tension between pursuing a career and climate activism. They also talked about the role of social media, noting a shift away from Facebook toward platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and X, and the difficulty of using these spaces for serious advocacy. The group concluded with a discussion on the importance of local influence and the hope that younger generations will bring their convictions into future leadership roles.

### Next steps

#### Frank

* Continue organizing and facilitating People's Emergency Briefing film screenings in satellite villages, including Kippen.
* Follow up on the food-focused subgroup's plan to use the full food lecture to start a discussion group and produce a charter for the area about food resilience and food security.

#### Katie

* Consider ways to advocate for climate action and engage with local MPs or elected leaders to push for policy changes.

#### Stella

* Try to complete the Bath survey.

#### Sue

* Explore ways to create collective action in Battle following the film screenings, potentially using the food resilience angle.

#### Tegen

* Continue working in her sustainability consulting role to influence clients and colleagues on sustainability issues.

#### Collaboration

* Tegen and Katie: Spread the word about the Great Collaboration and encourage friends to attend future free Wednesday meetings.

### Summary

### Climate Change Youth Perspectives

Chih-Hsuan presented on climate change challenges from a younger generation's perspective, dividing the discussion into three parts: physical climate changes, awareness and engagement challenges, and the gap between engagement and action. She highlighted how climate impacts are becoming more immediate and visible, noting the UK's recent heat waves as an example, and discussed the importance of making climate issues understandable, relevant, and actionable for public engagement. Chih-Hsuan emphasized that while social media and digital platforms can help scale climate actions through various influencers, successful implementation still depends on infrastructure, funding, and institutional capacity rather than individual action alone.

### Youth Climate Action Strategies

The meeting focused on discussing climate change awareness and action among young people. Chih-Hsuan presented graphics demonstrating climate change impacts and shared that young people in universities generally accept climate change as reality, though they feel powerless to drive policy changes due to their age. The discussion revealed that young people are frustrated by the hypocrisy they observe in wealthier individuals who don't reduce their carbon footprint while expecting others to do so, and they face challenges balancing climate activism with career and financial pressures, particularly in expensive cities like London. The participants discussed how social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) are used by younger generations, though Facebook has lost popularity, and they explored strategies for effective climate advocacy including community-level plastic-free initiatives and influencing local politicians.

***

#### Chat:

01:04:39 Frank Deas, Killearn: Very many thanks to Chih-Hsuan, Tegan and Katie for sharing their perspectives. Really interesting. afraid I need to say goodbye now

***

#### Audiotranscript:

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Looks really good at this end.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Okay, so, hello everyone, thank you for having me today, and, today I'm going to share some thoughts on climate change challenges from a younger generation's perspective, but, actually, it is from my own perspective, based on what I have

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Seeing, reading, and thinking about recently.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So, I have divided the whole presentation into three parts, including, some physical climate challenges.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: the awareness.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Sorry, and then into something slightly different about how people become aware of climate change and some engagement challenges. And finally, it's about some gap between engagement and the real action.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So, first part is about the physical release one.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So, first part is about the physical climate changes, and the questions behind this part is, what are we actually facing?

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So, when we talk about climate change, we are actually thinking about the way human activity has altered the Earth's system.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: like burning fossil fuels, large-scale emissions, transport, industrial activity, and some land use change have all contributed to, rising greenhouse gas.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: concentrations.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: But not all of these contribute to climate change in the same way. They are part of the broader environmental pressures created by modern

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: patterns of production and consumption. But for climate change specifically, the major drivers are greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, industry, and transport, together with land use change, such as deforestation.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And the major, one major consequence is the changing climate with more extreme and disrupted weather such as

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Wildfire, drought, and extreme heat.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: some severe storms and flooding risk or extreme rainfall.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And, an important point of the global warming and the climate change is that

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: simply about everything becoming warmer in the same way. It can also change the timing, intensity, and variability of weather, which means, different places can experience very different impact.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And this is something that is no longer distant.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So like in the UK this year, repeated heat waves made climate change feel much more immediate.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: The Met Office has recorded 55 days in summer 2026, when temperature is above 28 degrees, and 9 of.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And 9 days, about… 35 degrees. And, as shown in this chart, for

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: the graph A, it is the number of days above 28 degrees, and, the…

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Every arrow represents a year of.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: record, and you can see that the 2026 is much more higher than the other year.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And this is…

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: important because it moves climate change away from being something we only discuss as a future risk to something that people are already experiencing.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And this brings me to the second challenge.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: like before discussing how people respond to climate change. I think it is

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Important to ask how people become aware of it in the first place.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So how do people aware of climate change?

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: For many years, some of the most recognizable images associated with climate change were things like melting ice, retreating glaciers, and polar bears losing sea ice habitat.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And these images were very powerful because they bring viewers.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: visually into a place most of the people will probably never experience by themselves.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And people didn't need to learn a climate model to understand what a glacier disappearing ring meant. So, these forms of communication were effective at making climate change visible, even when the impact is still felt.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Quite far away from people's daily life.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And for years, small island states were the strongest.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: voices calling for climate action, because the rising sea level posts are very

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: direct threat to their homes and communities. But for many people living

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Elsewhere, climate changes still feel like something happening far away.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: But the distance is changing. Now the heat waves, flooding, extreme rainfall, and seasonal disruption are increasingly shaping everyday condition.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: People do not only see these events in documentaries or only on news anymore.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: People are actually experiencing them directly.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And… So, this has made…

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: the climate change becomes more tangible because people are start to experience by themselves.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: But there is another situation is, what if the environmental impact is invisible?

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: I would like to take AI as an example here, because from the user's perspective, AI feels almost completely virtual.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: People type something into a screen and receive the answer within seconds, but actually behind these interactions are data centers and the servers, the cooling system.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And it's also about the electricity and water.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So there's a report from Iea that they found that global data center electricity demand is

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Projected to nearly double from about 485 terawatt per hour in 2025 to around 950 by 2030, with AI being the major driver of the growth.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And, what I found…

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: interesting here is the contrast with climate messaging over the past few years, when organizations are encouraging people to reduce carbon emissions.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: There was often an emphasis on using less energy, improving efficiency, and avoiding unnecessary energy use. But when AI become part of

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: People's everyday life so quickly, the energy demand behind.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: the use of AI seems much less visible in public discussion. So, AI feels virtual, but its environmental footprint is actually still visible.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And when the impact is not immediately visible, raising the awareness becomes an important first step to deal with the climate change.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And what turns up… but awareness by itself is not the same as engagement, and to turn it into engagement.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: I think it would depend partly on whether the issue feels understandable, relevant, and worth responding to.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And, so, I think first, at the first step, the

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Issue need to be understandable, so it…

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Because if the issue… if the message is too technical or abstract, people may simply stop

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: paying attention about the topic. So visual storytelling or some clear example would be necessary.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And the second is, it need to be Relevant to one's life.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: This is, like, when people are experiencing the heat wave or flooding, they can, actually knew that, oh, there need to be, there's some action need to be taken.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And third is the people need to feel that responding is actually worthwhile.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Because if the problem feels too overwhelming, or if people feel that nothing they do will make a difference.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And feel hopeless.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: they may stop their action immediately. So, I think engagement is not just about getting attention, it is also about making the issue, become more easy to understand.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And become relevant, and… Be possible to respond.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And this is where communicating for engagement is a balancing act.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: We need enough urgency to show that climate change matters, but constant crisis

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Messaging can also lead to fatigue or disengagement.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And we also will need enough complexity to remain accurate, but if a message becomes too technical, people may stop following. And…

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: At the same time, simplifying too much can distort… can also distort the issue.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And emotional connection can help people start to care, but if communication becomes too much.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: or too dramatic can become sensationalist.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So… so I think, effective engagement is not simply about making a message stronger, but also about finding a balance between

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Keeping people in trust without losing the currency or trust.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And, the final Changes is what happens after engagement.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: What turns engagement into action, and what allows the actions to have a lasting impact.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And I think that one thing that can make action feel more achievable is being able to see a result.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And these examples are quite different. One is about cleanup.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: One is about ecological restoration, and one is about the urban greening. They are not all climate actions in the narrow things, but

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: I think this example has… an important feature in common that they make the change feasible.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So people can see what the problem's going on, and the intervention, and also the result after taking action.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And I think this kind of visible outcome can make environmental action feel less abstract and more worthwhile, because

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: It shows that the change is really.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: possible.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Everyone can make a difference and even if the scale is

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Well, it's small, it's still, something that people can… Actually do in their community.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And how can this kind of actions help.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Traditionally, scaling is often understood as a bottom-up process where local action grows through collective participation and institutional support.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: It often starts from an individual or small group that acts locally, and more people and communities or organizations will

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: participate and become involved. And then eventually, policy funding infrastructure and tuitions.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: will also help the chain persist and also and expand.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: I think this kind of model is still important because the local enthusiasm alone is usually not enough to sustain a large-scale change, but the climate change Challenges is often pretty large scale.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: I also think that The way action scale is beginning.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: to change, so… For nowadays.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So social medias and many different kinds of digital platforms create another room to scale.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: This one is.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Okay.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: This one is a recent literature from nature, that it actually is… Looks into.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: how influencers can shape high need.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: attitudes and actions. It considers different sorts of influence, including family.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: and friends, everyday influencers, high profile influencers, companies and different NGOs.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And they also consider about different channels, such as conversation.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Mass media and digital platforms.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And this is, like, the framework of

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: How they do… what kind of information they take into consider.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Mmhm.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Oops.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And it turns out that, an individual or influencer can now reach an audience far beyond what many traditional, local organizations could reach on their own.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So maybe, so I'm thinking that maybe,

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: by different kinds of influencer people or like organization can reach or can spread the information to more people.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: But this didn't mean that influencer has the same authority or implementation capacity as governments or institutions.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Influential source may be able to

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Mobilize attention or participation very quickly, but implementing lasting

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Chang still depends on infrastructure, funding, and institutions.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So, this brings me to what I think is one of the most important challenges, the implementation gap.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So I think there are 2 slightly different problems here. So on one side, people may want to take the

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: lower carbon or environmental preferable option, but practical conditions make it difficult.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So,

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: For example, public transport may be inadequate, or a heat pump may have a high upfront cost, or maybe they want to ride a bicycle, but urban design make it unsafe or inconvenient.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And local environment projects may struggle when funding is not sustained.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And another… Side of the problem is, even after someone takes what appears to be the right action.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: The system that receives.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: The action can affect the final result. So I would like to take recycling as an example.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So, a household may separate

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: It's recycling correctly, but after collection, the material still has to be sorted and processed.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: and contamination or limited processing capacity.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: can result in some material being rejected, and those being rejected may eventually be treated as

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Common waste, including food.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: incineration or landfill.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So in this part the individual action does matter. But

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Because of the system around it, they might not get the…

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Get the result that they actually want.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So from challenge to change, bringing everything together.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: I think, the first part of the physical challenge.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: is what's actually happening, and for climate impact, it has become more frequent, disrupted, and increasing in part.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: of everyday life. And the second is the awareness and engagement challenge, whether people recognize.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: This impact, understand them, and remain engaged.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Especially when some impacts feel distant while others are directly experienced or difficult to see.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And the third is the action and implementation challenge, whether people reconnect, how Concern becomes meaningful change.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And how that change depends not only on individual willingness, but also on social influence, infrastructure, affordability, funding, and institutional capacity.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: So overall, climate change is not only a challenge for understanding what is happening, but also a challenge of making those impacts become more visible to the public.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And keeping people engaged.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: In creating the conditions that allow the elections to last.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And for… for… in my own experience and like friends around me. Sometimes we talk about the climate change.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: challenges. But we will trying to define that. What can we actually

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: do for improvement, but, it often stopped by that, we didn't have funding, or, like, the information couldn't be spread, so, I think these are…

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Really a big challenge for her.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Making.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: a difference.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And that's.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: of my sharing.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: That's… really spectacular.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Shih-Swan, thank you. I think you did a wonderful job on the graphics. You demonstrated very clearly what we're all thinking. And I have a whole bunch of questions for you, but in case others do, I'm going to pass it on. But I do have one specifically for you, which is…

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Okay.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: We're all familiar… The levels of age and places that we,

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: work with of plenty of climate deniers and people who just don't believe that it's happening, and they're not very fussed about it. But amongst the young people, amongst your colleagues in university, is there a high percentage of belief in this? Is it happening? Do you find that most of your

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Age group are indeed very concerned about the climate.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Yes, I think it is like.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: We think it is truth.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: kind of true that it is happening. So we wouldn't say that we believe it or not, because for at least

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Like, my classmate, we think that is actually happening, and, like, Oh.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: We… I would say we are hard to imagine why some people couldn't.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: David.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Understand that this is actually happening.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Yeah.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Do you… do you find that because

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: The young use social media much more than some of the older people do that.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: The word is spreading because of influencers and social media.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Because I like very much your suggestion that we should be using social media much more to get things done, and it strikes me that your generation is much more familiar with influencing and social media than we are, and we could all do with a bit of guidance.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: And then just let me take this opportunity to say hi to Tegan. Thank you for joining us. Lovely to see you.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: So, I think you're telling me that people are much more aware, because you're all listening in, you're all talking to each other via social media, and the word is getting out that, actually, things are looking like some work is needed, promptly.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: So thank you very much. Stuart, you've got a question for G-Swan, please.

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Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Yeah, thank you very much for doing that.

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Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Probably not an easy task, but you did a great job.

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Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: What I would like to know is what are the attitudes of Your generation.

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Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Towards climate change, are you aware of any actions that they've taken?

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Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Such as, changing their diet a bit, becoming, less consumers.

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Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: And what are their, sort of, political views? So, I think we need, sort of, urgent political action.

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Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: across the globe.

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Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: I was wondering what the young people actually think and do.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: I would say most of the people was, are hopeless.

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Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Ha ha ha.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: To to the climate change challenges because, like, we are still

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Too young to have the power.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: To share, like, policy, or,

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Like, from the government part, or even from… The company… different company.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: I have seen some change.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: on the social media that people are saying, why should we do recycling if the wealthy people are like they are using so much.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Like water, or like many things.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And, one… one example that has been.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Talking a lot is, some wealthy people will…

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Travel to other country for maybe a meal by their own.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Private airplane?

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: When the… When the public, like, other people are trying to save.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Or reduce the carbon emissions.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And, I found that part become the biggest, problem when… Because when someone are…

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Trying to spread the information of how to reduce the carbon footprint.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: by, reuse some plastic bag, or, use some, avoid using one-time resources.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Then other people come up with so many.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: examples of other people's wasting resources. So…

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: And… and then the communication, or, like, the change at the end would turn out to be, if you want to do the recycle, you can do, but don't tell other people to do. And I think it's a big problem of.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: Dealing with… Next, avoid using too much resources.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Yep.

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Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: I tend to agree with you. I don't know why…

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Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: The government-owned fleet of official cars aren't all electric.

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Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: I I I think that that would set a good example if they did that, but obviously they don't.

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Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Anyway, thank you very much again, that was great.

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Chih-Hsuan Chang: That's true.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Let me also just say hello to Katie, who's another of our young Maebies. Thank you for joining us, and please feel free to join in the conversation.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: If you wish to make any points.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: And.

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Katie Baxter: Hello, thank you for welcoming me. I think I just want to echo what was mentioned before and just say that

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Katie Baxter: It is very prominent in the use of today that, like, the hypocrisy in society, just like the people who do have the power to change things, not actually taking that power. So why is the onus sort of…

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Katie Baxter: filtered down to the individuals who can't really do a lot, and there's also sort of things that I personally think

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Katie Baxter: like, chains and businesses. For example, I remember pre-COVID, there was, like, lots of shops were testing out no plastic packaging, but that's never been brought back since, and now the onus is more on the individual to choose not to buy

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Katie Baxter: Fruit and vegetable wrapped in plastic, but obviously that's more expensive, and especially for the youth who've kind of gone through.

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Katie Baxter: Especially for, like, our…

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Katie Baxter: generation, about, like, 18 to 25, who are, struggling with money and the cost of living, and kind of been hit hardest by all these things, it's quite hard, I think, for us to sort of rally together and do… make anything that's gonna seem like meaningful action. It's not to say that the small things go unnoticed, but I think it's hard

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Katie Baxter: To do the small things without the support of bigger legislation and policy, just as was mentioned before.

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Katie Baxter: Yeah, that's all I really have to say on that question.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Do you feel, Katie, that there is power in numbers, that there's an awful lot of people in the 18 to 25 year group who, if they got together.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Could really make a difference, because you're quite right, politicians won't do anything until somebody is making a lot of noise, but if all the 18 to 25 year olds are stirring up trouble and then basically making a lot of noise, you don't think things will get done more then?

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Katie Baxter: I definitely do agree that more could be done if that were to happen. I just think the slight issue with that is I think it has been, advocated for previously was sort of, like, the Greta Thunberg movement is something that I remember from when I was slightly younger, and that's something that was such a big movement. Yet again, it wasn't necessarily, implemented or backed by

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Katie Baxter: authorities in the same way, and it's also hard because,

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Katie Baxter: Now that you are a bit older, you kind of have to make the choice, I think, in that age range where

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Katie Baxter: not all of us are in a position where we can do all these things, and for example, even when we are in positions to do things like the recycling, especially, for example, in my council in London, I always put the recycling out separate to my north, but they only started recycling in January.

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Katie Baxter: they only started taking it separately in January, so that's quite surprising. So not all the institutions are following the best practices, so it's quite hard to, yeah, again.

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Katie Baxter: make that decision for yourself, yeah, I think. Yeah, sorry, a bit of a confusing answer, but…

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: No, no. Well, I, I think that part of our role in the Great Collaboration is to, pull together all these threads. I mean, a lot of the things that you're saying, I was thinking about the plastic that you mentioned and,

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Katie Baxter: Yeah.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Rather than there being a national plastic movement, there are plenty of organizations that are saying, create a plastic free community within your area.

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Katie Baxter: Hmm.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: And there are ways of, you know, recognized ways of doing that. So you can get yourself certified as a plastic free community, which is doing it number by number. And then the more you can get your MPs involved, which was partly the drive behind the People's Emergency Briefing, I think that is the way to get it done because the politicians are not going to do anything.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: unless they're made absolutely clear to them that the populace is pretty disgruntled with them.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: And that they can either do something about it or get thrown out, as I think Mr. Trump is about to discover. I'm very pleased to say. But.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: I think that I would love to see, The young people, so staging.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: more noisy concerns about the fact that they're sitting and looking at all this. They're the ones who are experiencing the problems that, to some extent, we've caused. And I think you're very right to feel upset about the hypocrisy of people. Absolutely right. But, I think you've…

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: I think you need to appreciate that there actually is something that you can do, that you can ferment a movement, you can fent objections, you can make it absolutely clear to your MPs or local elected leaders that it's not a satisfactory status quo, and they better do something about it.

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Katie Baxter: Yeah.

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Katie Baxter: Definitely, I think that's definitely true. There's stuff that the individual can do, and there's a lot of noise that can be created, at the lower levels, and which is why it's so great what the Great Collaboration are doing, so sort of trying to advocate for that and implement that a bit more. I think that's really necessary right now, and it's really great what they're doing.

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Katie Baxter: What you guys do.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: They're in due course.

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Katie Baxter: Yeah.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: You can see there's a comment from Frank, please.

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Frank Deas, Killearn: Thanks very much, and it's great to hear younger voices on a Wednesday lunchtime. I think, picking up on what Katie was saying, I do think

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Frank Deas, Killearn: it's almost worth trying to understand what happened to Fridays for a Future. It was a significant global movement, it got great traction. It should never have been up to your generation to try and save the world from the messes that our generation had left it in, but nevertheless, we… you know, there was a real hope and aspiration that came out of that.

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Frank Deas, Killearn: COVID obviously was a major issue in 2020 because suddenly you couldn't actually meet and gather and act in groups. And then as you say, it's harder when you're just starting a career to know whether you can devote time to it. I think the other thing I'd be interested in…

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Frank Deas, Killearn: you know, Katie and Deegan and Shushan's thoughts on this.

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Frank Deas, Killearn: as a society, we've gone backwards in so many areas that it's quite hard for the current young generation to work out what battle they want to fight. And around about 2018, life was slightly simpler. You could fight for climate change, because that was important.

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Frank Deas, Killearn: Now, if you're a 20 year old with a social conscience, do you fight for climate change? Do you fight for ending genocide in Palestine? Do you fight for ending racism in this country?

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Frank Deas, Killearn: to fight for the patriarchy in Cornell University being overturned. You know, the things that you had hoped might have been battles that were won suddenly seem to be back again. And while, as Graham says, let's hope Trump will face the reality, a reality check in the midterms, when he came into office, not only did he ridicule Greta.

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Frank Deas, Killearn: But he set back so many other areas of women's rights and human rights that it must have been quite hard for a generation to have focus and say, yes, this is the battle we want to fight.

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Frank Deas, Killearn: Interesting your thoughts on that, if that's valid.

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Frank Deas, Killearn: as an outsider's observance.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Yeah, I'm fascinated how you bring all those threads together, Frank. Thank you.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: And…

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: I just wanted to jump in on that. I think that's a really, like, interesting point, and I guess it ties into what Katie was saying, because I think as

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Like someone who is between that, like, age range where you're having to think about your career.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: And what you want that to look like, it almost feels like you either have to choose.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: to… if you do care about the environment, I think the main image that we see of that is, like, the Greta figure, so it feels like if you want to do that, then that has to be almost, like, what you do and what you dedicate, like, everything to, I think because people are realizing that

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: there's lots of small stuff, obviously, you can do as an individual, but it's the bigger stuff that's more, like, institutional that has to change. So I think it almost feels like you either…

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Have to go, like, full… You know.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: That's your passion and that's all you commit yourself to and almost.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: sacrifice, like, The traditional, maybe, career route, and

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Like split your, you can't, it doesn't really feel like you could split your time between the 2 so I think finding a way to

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: get a job in this climate. Well, first of all, just get a job but then get a job that

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Is in sustainability or climate action that you're interested in but also, like, has, you feel, has a good enough career trajectory, it's just.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: It feels like you, yeah, I think like you said, it feels like you can't have it all, so you always have to pick one. And there aren't many examples maybe of people who are more junior, like having a career.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: But still pursuing like climate action and all the other bits that you mentioned, like, you know, women's rights and stuff like this. I think it just, yeah, there's a lot of choices and you kind of end up thinking, well, I ultimately need to pay the bills.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: I think Tegen, you could take heart from the fact that your generation will be the people making decisions in 20 years.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: If you're carrying forward your beliefs in climate change and what we need to do about it, then certainly not this stage of your career, but later on when you're sort of middle senior management or something, you can really change the direction of your company.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Okay.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Yeah, definitely, I think that's quite exciting.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: with you, so keep the faith.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Yeah.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Yeah, well, I… I've managed to get a job in… within, like, sustainability, and our team is very young, and it's within maybe, like, a traditional kind of career sector, because it's consulting, but our sustainability team in particular, that everyone is very young, and everyone is very…

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Passionate about actually like making an impact, so that's been really.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: So I've been really lucky to, like, work in a

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Of career that I wanted but also surrounded by, like, passionate people but I think that I've been very lucky and I appreciate that.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: There may not be tons of other…

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: kind of opportunities out there that fit that. But yeah, I agree, it is really exciting to see people are still kind of passionate all the way up through the, like, seniority.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Well, good luck, we'll keep our eyes on you.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Yes.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Sue, your turn for a question, please.

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Sue Burton: Mine's a few comments, really, more than that, maybe. Thank you so much, all of you that have joined us, today.

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Sue Burton: Couple of things is, I think that if you take the analogy of somebody who is a musician, who's fantastic at playing an instrument, only very few of them become professional musicians.

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Sue Burton: And a lot of people can build music into their life and still enjoy it and do a lot to it.

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Sue Burton: And I would say the same thing applies with climate and sustainability, that there are lots of people who it's important to, can be part of their life, but it doesn't need to be all to be relevant and important.

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Sue Burton: And I want to pick up something that I learned on this group, because we're talking about influence, is that what was said at this, one of the sessions here is.

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Sue Burton: use… use the… the areas that you're involved with to bring influence. So, you might be part… might go to a gym, and you think, gosh, the recycling's hopeless, they should be encouraging to sort their waste properly. So, use the fields that you're… or the areas that you have a little bit of influence, even if it's a moaning gym member.

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Sue Burton: That it's worthwhile doing, because those things add up, and I think that… so… and it's not all-consuming.

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Sue Burton: And that we can't always keep going, doing it wholeheartedly, but let's do small bits that do add up.

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Sue Burton: You mentioned about, politicians and, and,

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Sue Burton: Influence, and a lot of people here are local councillors.

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Sue Burton: And they're trying hard, but they have to bring people with them, their colleagues. They can't sit there and have their idea that they make a change. So what you're doing, what we're doing by spreading the word with the people who actually vote, is the is the hope to get more people who are councillors at whatever level, the top being the MP.

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Sue Burton: And the bottom being us parish councillors.

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Sue Burton: influencing them to get those decisions made. So it is worthwhile, sharing at a local level. And the final thing is about plastic, and all… lots of climate things, they change along the way.

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Sue Burton: And before, the solution seemed to be, if we reduce our amount of plastic, that'll be.

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Sue Burton: that will really help a lot. And we now know that we… that isn't really the main focus, and I certainly, in the slides, we talk about fossil fuels, we talk about the bigger things, as against the plastic has become a slightly lower, outcome.

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Sue Burton: Also, in the presentation, talk about AI and how much energy, water that we're using, and so those become our…

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Sue Burton: At.

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Sue Burton: important areas to focus. So I'd say keep up the good work, you're all doing it, find like-minded people so you don't feel alone, and please keep on going.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Thanks, Sue, very much. Frank, we're back with you again.

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Frank Deas, Killearn: Just a quickie on social media. One of the challenges I think we well, there's two challenges we face in community groups and social media. One is that there are lots of activists and people who are passionate about climate change, who are equally passionate that they can't bear to dirty themselves with anything that's owned by Meta. So suddenly Facebook and Instagram and so on are ruled out.

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Frank Deas, Killearn: And I just wondered, does the generation that's coming through, the people we've heard from today, do they feel that way too? And also, what are the social media channels that they use? Because again, we know.

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Frank Deas, Killearn: We think we're being young and trendy by using Facebook and actually, you know, my daughter stopped using that a decade ago. So I know I'm out of date.

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Frank Deas, Killearn: So just interested on the actualities of social media for the next generation.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Who's gonna answer that one?

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Katie Baxter: I can leave a comment if you'd like.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: please.

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Katie Baxter: I think in terms of social media, definitely moving away from Facebook, unfortunately.

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Katie Baxter: But definitely, I think people are quite…

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Katie Baxter: present on Instagram still, even though all the meta stuff on there, and then TikTok as well. And I think lots of people are still on, especially my age, around 23, are on X, looking at stuff there.

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Katie Baxter: So I think they're all pretty, still pretty present in…

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Katie Baxter: the youth, but maybe not like Facebook and the older genera. Sorry, I don't want to say older generation.

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Frank Deas, Killearn: No, no, dude.

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Katie Baxter: Yeah, it's being used a lot less, I think. I don't really know why. I think mainly because these newer things kind of…

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Katie Baxter: have a lot of multimedia, so they have, like, you can do videos, photos, and, like, connect with a lot of different things, rather than Facebook is… was… premise was just, like, your friends, I guess. Yeah.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Yes, and I think that.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: I'm interested that you mentioned X, because that's sort of controversial in terms of its owner, but I liked very much his original idea for buying, Twitter was that he wanted it to be a sort of a village.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: notice board, but visible around the world, basically, so that you could get the word out. And so, Katie, are you finding that there is a lot of.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Good in X and the people on it are all much the same viewpoint that they're trying to make the world a better place.

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Katie Baxter: I don't think I would agree with that, actually. I think that probably most people on social media probably aren't trying to make the world a better place, otherwise they wouldn't be spending a lot of time

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Katie Baxter: on it, in my opinion. They'd be doing… busy doing other things. I think that many… I think on X, it's quite a dark… it can be quite a dark place, but it also does… I think it helps connect with, sort of.

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Katie Baxter: what politicians are saying and stuff like that, and just keep informed about news and stuff, rather than necessarily as a communication of social media, similar to

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Katie Baxter: Instagram or TikTok or something, but also lots of people are using LinkedIn generally a lot more. That's definitely taken a boost, and it's taken a boost more socially as well, with people just, like.

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Katie Baxter: Updating on their lives and staying connected with people in that in that way, especially in again like in my generation they're trying to.

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Katie Baxter: Build up their careers. But I think X, yeah, isn't, isn't the best.

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Katie Baxter: Place to be.

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Katie Baxter: Unfortunately. Kind of the best…

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Katie Baxter: the most successful way, I think, these days is to form a presence, is you kind of have to…

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Katie Baxter: support the, like, jokey side of social media. You have to sort of go along with the media trends and stuff like that, to gain traction, and then once you've gained traction, you can kind of

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Katie Baxter: Change your.

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Katie Baxter: profile into your cause or something like that, but unfortunately, I think the main interest on social media is no longer causes and more towards just, like, being a fun

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Katie Baxter: Place for people to to get a bit of a dopamine release rather than learn more about what's happening in the world and like what.

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Katie Baxter: What's that going wrong? Yeah.

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Frank Deas, Killearn: I think, Katie, that's good, but for those of us of our generation, we kind of see that as the Ed Davey effect.

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Katie Baxter: Yeah.

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Frank Deas, Killearn: You try and do lots of fun things to get traction, but then you don't get taken seriously 'cause you're doing lots of fun things to get traction.

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Frank Deas, Killearn: Okay.

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Katie Baxter: I think you can… I think there's, like, a middle point with that. I think definitely you can do some fun things and also be serious about things that you're doing. But it's honestly just sort of regarding who you're trying to connect to, which demographic you're trying to connect to.

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Katie Baxter: And I don't really know a lot about the algorithm and stuff, but yeah, I think you can kind of tailor what sort of content you're creating to the

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Katie Baxter: But it's hard because it's so saturated with things that you don't want to see on social media.

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Katie Baxter: Which is making it really difficult to see what you are interested in, so I think maybe it's…

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Katie Baxter: It's kind of people, I don't know, I don't know if it's a sustainable solution for getting the word out. I couldn't really say, unfortunately.

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Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Do you think any of the faces you see before you would make a good influencer?

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Katie Baxter: Oh, I don't know. I think if you've got the passion, you've got the drive, you can do it.

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Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Thanks.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Well done, Kate.

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Katie Baxter: you.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Gary, your turn, please.

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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: I was just wondering.

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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: All the thoughts about your future and everything.

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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Are there any steps you're taking now to prepare yourselves for this future that's coming along?

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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Are there any decisions that you're finding yourself making these days?

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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: That you think are going to be good decisions to make now.

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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Given what's going to happen, we think

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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Coming up in the next few decades.

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Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: It's like, how is it influencing your thinking and your actions today?

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: I won't speak for everyone, but I think there's definitely, maybe at least my, amongst my friends, or I think anyone in London, really, just because London is expensive, I think there's maybe more of a.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Feeling that you need to just be a bit more.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Like, educate yourself, kind of.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: financially, and… Kind of things that maybe.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: I've spoken to my parents about they weren't necessarily thinking about at 24, like I and even my younger sister are having to sort of just like.

507
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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Have initial thoughts of like, oh, when it comes to savings, like, what's, what's going to be my plan, like, when it comes to buying a house, like.

508
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Tegen Dixon-clarke: You know, how old do I want to be? It's not that there's any like plan set in stone, but I think just it's on, it's definitely on people's minds.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: A lot more, and I think I'm having conversations with friends.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Just generally about, kind of, Casually about how, like, just expensive London is and how they're kind of.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: They plan their finances and stuff like this, which…

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Having spoken to my parents, maybe they weren't quite so.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Like.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Trying to be aware and trying to educate themselves at a younger age.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: But obviously, that's quite a personal thing. But I think there's just, like, a pressure, maybe.

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Katie Baxter: think.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: The cost of living.

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Katie Baxter: Sorry, I think that's definitely true. I think young people are now having to make more of a choice about going into, like, a job that's going to pay really well compared to doing something more passionate, because of the cost of living for younger people, especially in London, where it is really expensive, like, at the end of the day, you do have to

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Katie Baxter: Pay your bills, which is harder for in terms of climate.

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Katie Baxter: interactions, because obviously a lot of that is quite voluntary. But then I feel like in London especially, time is money, and you can only do so much with your time.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Thanks, Frank, but good to see you.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Well, Tegan, you made a choice, didn't you, of the sort of career that you follow because you were able to find a job in sustainability, but what was the appeal of sustainability to you?

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: I… Generally, just like kind of growing up passion. I grew up in the countryside, I think.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Nature was always really important to me and then learnt more about climate change and I think it's quite hard not to when you hear about it a lot and you kind of learn about it. I just found it really interesting, but also obviously not purely academic, it also is quite important. And so I think I just.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: decided that… I did want that element of something that I was passionate about in my job.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: But I wanted to find a way that.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: I could… Almost do sustainable work and like do sustainability focused work but maybe not purely in like a.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Sustainability sector, so almost talking to people who aren't that convinced about sustainability and being the one to try and say.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: Well, have you thought about, you know, a sustainability angle to your problem? Have you thought and kind of having people go, oh, no, no, no, that's all that's nonsense. And trying to say like, because I think it's also just quite an interesting challenge if you're interested in it.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: to try and make the case to people who maybe are only thinking about, like, profit, and try and say, well, have you, you know, maybe there's an angle that you haven't thought about. So I think I wanted to find, like, a middle ground.

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Tegen Dixon-clarke: where I could…

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01:06:25.130 --> 01:06:30.910
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Tegen Dixon-clarke: try and even just change like a few people's minds who might not have thought about that.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: It's very refreshing to the oldies to hear that there is the younger generation coming through who are going to do something about it, provided you're still alive, then there's hope.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: But, good stuff. Does anyone else have any more questions for you? Anyone they want to say?

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Well, thank you so much, Ishwan, for the effort you put into this. I think it was wonderful. I found that the clarity of your diagrams were much better than I've seen elsewhere. Really good job. So, thank you so much, and Tegan and Katie, really delighted that you joined in, so thank you very much.

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Katie Baxter: you.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: to future meetings.

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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: What the future meetings were going to be about. I got the slightest idea because I haven't worked out what next week's going to be yet, but stay tuned and we look forward to seeing you again. Thank you so much.

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Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: I think we ought to say a big thank you to the younger people.

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Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: And encourage them to spread the word about the great collaboration, and the fact that these meetings are free, they're every Wednesday, and encourage your friends to come and attend.

541
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01:07:39.250 --> 01:07:43.799
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Thank you, Stuart. Yes, absolutely. Please do. And do come again.

542
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01:07:44.400 --> 01:07:47.379
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Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: And bring hordes with you. Yeah, thank you.

543
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01:07:47.380 --> 01:07:49.020
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Sue Burton: Thank you so much. Lovely.

544
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01:07:49.020 --> 01:07:49.700
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tristram cary: Thank you.

545
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01:07:49.700 --> 01:07:50.830
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Stella Brown: Thank you very much.

546
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01:07:50.830 --> 01:07:52.420
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tristram cary: Thank you very much.

547
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01:07:52.420 --> 01:07:53.890
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Tegen Dixon-clarke: presentation.

548
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01:07:54.090 --> 01:07:55.659
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Stella Brown: Wonderful presentation, yes.

***

#### Markdown copy of the presentation:

```
# Climate Change

## CLIMATE CHANGE CHALLENGES

**Presented by:** Chih-Hsuan, Chang  
**Date:** 30 September, 2026  

### From a younger generation’s perspective

---

# Introduction

1. Physical Climate Challenges
2. The Awareness and Engagement Challenges
3. The Implementation and Action Challenges

---

# PHYSICAL CLIMATE CHALLENGES

## WHAT ARE WE FACING?

---

# Human activities are putting pressure on the planet

---

# One major consequence is a changing climate,
## with more extreme and disruptive weather

- Wildfire
- Drought / extreme heat
- Flooding
- Severe storms
- Global Warming

---

# Heatwaves are becoming more frequent and more persistent

**How exceptional were UK summer 2026 daily temperatures? — Met Office**

The UK recorded:

- 55 days above 28°C
- 9 days above 35°C

in summer 2026.

---

# The Awareness and Engagement Challenges

## How do people notice, understand and engage with climate change?

---

# How did people become aware of climate change?

- Melting ice
- Retreating glaciers

For many years, climate change was represented through powerful
images and documentaries such as *Melting Greenland*.

They made climate change visible,
even when its impacts felt far removed from everyday life.

---

# When climate change becomes part of everyday life

Heatwaves, flooding, extreme rainfall and seasonal disruption
are increasingly shaping everyday conditions.

They made climate change tangible,
as people began to experience its impacts in everyday life.

---

# AI feels virtual, but its environmental footprint is physical

Global data-centre electricity demand is projected to nearly double
from about **485 TWh in 2025** to around **950 TWh by 2030**,
with AI a major driver of growth.

## What if the environmental impact is invisible?

Invisible impacts can be easy to overlook,
even when the activity itself is part of everyday life.

*Key Questions on Energy and AI — Analysis — IEA*

---

When environmental impacts are not immediately visible,
raising awareness becomes an important first step towards action.

---

# WHAT TURNS AWARENESS INTO ENGAGEMENT?

Awareness may attract attention, but engagement depends on whether
people feel that the issue is:

- understandable
- relevant
- worth responding to

---

# Understandable

### Can people easily understand what the problem is?

- Visual storytelling
- Clear examples

# Relevant

### Does the issue feel connected to their own lives?

- Polar bears / Greenland = distant
- Heatwaves / flooding = experienced
- AI / data centres = everyday use but hidden environmental link

# Worth responding to

### Do people feel paying attention or becoming involved is worthwhile?

- Does the message create a sense of concern?
- Does it feel hopeless or manageable?

---

# COMMUNICATING FOR ENGAGEMENT IS A BALANCING ACT

---

# The Implementation and Action Challenge

## What turns engagement into meaningful change?

---

# WHEN CHANGE BECOMES VISIBLE

Visible results can make action feel more achievable and worthwhile.

---

# HOW CAN ACTION SCALE?

Traditionally, scaling is often understood as a bottom-up process,
where local action grows through collective participation and
institutional support.

---

# A NEW ROUTE TO SCALE?

Digital platforms can allow individuals and influencers to reach
audiences far beyond those reached by many local organisations.

Influencers may be able to mobilise attention or participation
very quickly, but implementing lasting change still depends on:

- Infrastructure
- Funding
- Institutions

---

# Social influence and climate action

A recent *Nature Climate Change* Perspective looked at how social
influence shapes climate attitudes and action.

It argues that influence can come from different actors, including:

- Close social contacts
- Everyday influencers
- High-profile influencers
- Companies
- NGOs

Influence can operate through:

- Conversations
- Digital platforms
- Mass media
- Social norms

What I find particularly interesting is that digital platforms can
now allow individuals or influencers to reach audiences far beyond
the scale of many traditional local organisations.

This can rapidly shape attention, social norms and participation,
although reach is not the same as institutional capacity or
lasting impact.

---

# THE IMPLEMENTATION GAP

Taking the "right" action does not always guarantee the intended
outcome, and good intentions do not always translate into action.

### When action does not produce the intended outcome

and

### When good intentions face practical barriers

---

Before action, people may be constrained by:

- Infrastructure
- Affordability
- Funding

And even after people take the intended action, the system that
receives that action can still affect the final outcome.

---

# FROM CHALLENGE TO CHANGE

## The physical challenge

### What are we facing?

Climate impacts are becoming more frequent, disruptive and
increasingly part of everyday life.

## The awareness and engagement challenge

### Do people recognise and stay engaged with it?

Impacts may be distant, directly experienced or difficult to see,
and how they are communicated shapes whether people remain engaged.

## The action and implementation challenge

### How does concern become meaningful change?

Individual action matters, but lasting impact also depends on:

- Social influence
- Infrastructure
- Affordability
- Funding
- Institutional capacity

---
```

***


---

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