Improving figures for climate change communications: Insights from interviews with international policymakers and practitioners

IF 4.8 2区 环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Climatic Change Pub Date : 2024-03-19 DOI:10.1007/s10584-024-03704-7
Wändi Bruine de Bruin, Lila Rabinovich, Kate Weber, Marianna Babboni, Lance Ignon, Rachel Wald, Monica Dean, Alix Kashdan, Sigourney Luz
{"title":"Improving figures for climate change communications: Insights from interviews with international policymakers and practitioners","authors":"Wändi Bruine de Bruin, Lila Rabinovich, Kate Weber, Marianna Babboni, Lance Ignon, Rachel Wald, Monica Dean, Alix Kashdan, Sigourney Luz","doi":"10.1007/s10584-024-03704-7","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Nearly 200 governments rely on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for scientific assessments of climate change. IPCC figures are important for conveying key findings, but can be difficult for policymakers and practitioners to understand. Best practices in graph design, summarized in the IPCC’s visual style guide, recommend conducting interviews with members of the target audience before finalizing figures. Therefore, we interviewed 20 policy makers and practitioners from different countries about three figures drafted for the second order draft of the summary for policymakers associated with IPCC’s Working Group III Sixth Assessment Report. Half were frequent users and half were occasional users of climate science, but similar comments emerged from both groups. The figures received a median rating of 3, on a scale from 1 (= not easy at all to understand) to 5 (= very easy to understand). Showing the caption did not always improve these ratings. Overall, two types of recommendations emerged. First, participants suggested focusing each figure on one key message for policymakers, and removing irrelevant details. For IPCC authors, this involves making hard choices about what to show in the figure and what to leave for the text. Additionally, participants suggested straightforward fixes such as using clear titles, labels, and captions that support the key message. Based on our findings, we present recommendations for the design of climate change figures, and examples of revised figures. These recommendations should be useful for the next round of IPCC reports, and for other organizations that communicate about climate science with policymakers and practitioners.</p>","PeriodicalId":10372,"journal":{"name":"Climatic Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Climatic Change","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-024-03704-7","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

Nearly 200 governments rely on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for scientific assessments of climate change. IPCC figures are important for conveying key findings, but can be difficult for policymakers and practitioners to understand. Best practices in graph design, summarized in the IPCC’s visual style guide, recommend conducting interviews with members of the target audience before finalizing figures. Therefore, we interviewed 20 policy makers and practitioners from different countries about three figures drafted for the second order draft of the summary for policymakers associated with IPCC’s Working Group III Sixth Assessment Report. Half were frequent users and half were occasional users of climate science, but similar comments emerged from both groups. The figures received a median rating of 3, on a scale from 1 (= not easy at all to understand) to 5 (= very easy to understand). Showing the caption did not always improve these ratings. Overall, two types of recommendations emerged. First, participants suggested focusing each figure on one key message for policymakers, and removing irrelevant details. For IPCC authors, this involves making hard choices about what to show in the figure and what to leave for the text. Additionally, participants suggested straightforward fixes such as using clear titles, labels, and captions that support the key message. Based on our findings, we present recommendations for the design of climate change figures, and examples of revised figures. These recommendations should be useful for the next round of IPCC reports, and for other organizations that communicate about climate science with policymakers and practitioners.

Abstract Image

查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
改进气候变化宣传数字:采访国际政策制定者和实践者的启示
近 200 个国家的政府依靠政府间气候变化专门委员会(IPCC)对气候变化进行科学评估。政府间气候变化专门委员会的图表对于传达关键结论非常重要,但对于政策制定者和从业人员来说却很难理解。IPCC 的视觉风格指南中总结了图表设计的最佳实践,建议在最终确定图表之前与目标受众进行访谈。因此,我们就为 IPCC 第三工作组第六次评估报告相关决策者摘要二阶草案起草的三个图表,采访了来自不同国家的 20 位决策者和从业人员。其中一半是气候科学的经常使用者,一半是偶尔使用者,但这两类人都提出了类似的意见。在从 1 分(= 完全不容易理解)到 5 分(= 非常容易理解)的评分中,数字的中位数为 3 分。显示说明并不总能提高这些评分。总的来说,与会者提出了两类建议。首先,与会者建议将每幅图的重点放在为政策制定者提供一个关键信息上,并删除无关的细节。对于 IPCC 的作者来说,这就需要做出艰难的选择,在图中显示什么,在文本中保留什么。此外,与会者还提出了一些简单明了的建议,如使用清晰的标题、标签和说明来支持关键信息。根据我们的研究结果,我们提出了气候变化图表设计的建议,以及修改后图表的例子。这些建议对 IPCC 的下一轮报告以及其他与政策制定者和从业者交流气候科学的组织都会有所帮助。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
Climatic Change
Climatic Change 环境科学-环境科学
CiteScore
10.20
自引率
4.20%
发文量
180
审稿时长
7.5 months
期刊介绍: Climatic Change is dedicated to the totality of the problem of climatic variability and change - its descriptions, causes, implications and interactions among these. The purpose of the journal is to provide a means of exchange among those working in different disciplines on problems related to climatic variations. This means that authors have an opportunity to communicate the essence of their studies to people in other climate-related disciplines and to interested non-disciplinarians, as well as to report on research in which the originality is in the combinations of (not necessarily original) work from several disciplines. The journal also includes vigorous editorial and book review sections.
期刊最新文献
Natural resource management and green technological innovation impact on health risks and social development: Evidence from advanced economies Green industrial policy for climate action in the basic materials industry Amplification of compound hot-dry extremes and associated population exposure over East Africa Raising the bar: What determines the ambition level of corporate climate targets? A 561-yr (1461-2022 CE) summer temperature reconstruction for Mid-Atlantic-Northeast USA shows connections to volcanic forcing and atmospheric circulation
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1