The Psychology of Climate Change: How to Build Consensus through Communication
Release Date: 04/11/2024
Beyond Climate: A Risk Professionals’ Guide to the Biodiversity COPs
Climate Risk Podcast
Hear from Eva Zabey, CEO of Business for Nature, as we dive into the complex landscape of environmental diplomacy, and the role of business in halting and reversing biodiversity loss. We know that our economies depend on nature. But with biodiversity loss and climate change both putting pressure on ecosystems, businesses and financial institutions are facing increasing risks. In recognition of this, there is action on the policy front, and with global biodiversity agreements taking shape, the question isn’t whether firms should act – but how they can do so effectively. That’s why in...
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The CSRD Effect: How Regulation is Elevating Nature Risk
Climate Risk Podcast
Hear from Sebastian Leape, CEO of Natcap, as we explore how regulation such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is pushing nature risk to the top of firms’ sustainability agendas. At GARP, we’ve been benchmarking financial firms’ climate and nature risk management capabilities since 2019, and we see that nature is lagging climate risk by several years. But things are changing, and part of that change is driven by new regulations – such as the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive or CSRD – where firms are being asked to report on a range of...
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What We Learned About Climate and Nature Risk in 2024
Climate Risk Podcast
Hear from Jo Paisley and Maxine Nelson of the GARP Risk Institute as they look back on key learnings from the latest season of the Climate Risk Podcast. As we head into 2025, the GARP Climate Risk Podcast kicks off the new year with a retrospective on the past 12 months, reviewing the key themes and insights that emerged during 2024. From soil scientists to policymakers, financial experts to climate modelers, we’ve welcomed a diverse range of guests to share their expertise. This episode revisits some of the key learnings from these conversations and highlights the invaluable advice...
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Modelling Economic Complexity: Insights for Risk Professionals
Climate Risk Podcast
Hear from Prof. J. Doyne Farmer, Professor of Complex Systems Science at the University of Oxford, as we explore new modelling approaches designed to better capture the complex and chaotic nature of our climate and economy. We spend a lot of time on this podcast covering the transition to a low carbon economy, which will be driven largely by policies and technological innovation. These policies tend to be based on insights from economics. And our view on the pace of innovation is often informed by expert judgement. But traditional economic models often oversimplify the world, leading to poor...
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Predicting Our Climate Future: What We Do, Don’t and Can’t Know
Climate Risk Podcast
Hear from Prof. David Stainforth of LSE’s Grantham Research Institute, as we explore the limitations of climate modelling and the implications for risk management. There are some things in life that we can be virtually certain about: if one throws a ball into the air, it will fall back down. Similarly, scientists have evidence beyond reasonable doubt that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased a lot in the recent past. But there are quite a lot of things that we don’t know with any confidence, giving rise to significant uncertainty when we try to forecast those...
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How to Fix Climate Change & Biodiversity Loss at the Same Time
Climate Risk Podcast
Hear from Prof. Pete Smith of the University of Aberdeen, as we explore the overlap in the challenges from, and solutions to, climate change and biodiversity loss. Climate change and biodiversity loss are often treated separately – in science, policy, and even risk management. But as the connections between these global crises come into sharper focus, it’s clear that understanding them together is essential for real progress. In this episode, we break down those silos of climate and nature, exploring an integrated approach and how it might help us address these challenges...
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Carbon Pricing: Harnessing the Power of Markets to Drive Climate Action
Climate Risk Podcast
Hear from Gordon Bennett, Managing Director at ICE, as we dive into theory and practice of carbon pricing and its important role in driving the transition to net zero. Carbon pricing is the poster child of market-based solutions to climate change. The principle is simple: by assigning a cost to greenhouse gas emissions, we incentivize polluters to emit less, and to do so in the most cost-effective way. But there’s a significant gap between the theory and practice. Currently, only 24% of global emissions – about 12.8 gigatonnes – are covered by pricing mechanisms such as carbon taxes...
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Rethinking Natural Catastrophe Modeling: New Approaches for a Changing Climate
Climate Risk Podcast
Hear from three leading experts in natural catastrophe modeling, as we explore how climate change is causing the insurance industry to rethink their approach to modeling extreme weather. In the previous episode, we discussed the challenges facing the insurance industry from climate change – so in this episode, we’re going to dive into some of the solutions. Since natural catastrophe (Nat Cat) modeling was established in the late 1980s, the predictive power of their models has come from the statistical analysis of historical data. But as climate change continues to push the frequency and...
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Uninsurable: The Future of Insurance in a Changing Climate
Climate Risk Podcast
Hear from two leading experts, as we explore how insurance is adapting to climate change and the role of the industry beyond underwriting. Insurance plays a critical role in protecting households and businesses from the impacts of climate change, and with physical risks on the rise, it will become ever more important. However, insurers have also been significantly impacted by these risks, with annual losses from natural catastrophes exceeding 100 billion dollars for four consecutive years. The primary concern is that these physical risks eventually become uninsurable, as we are already...
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Urban Resilience: How Our Cities Must Adapt to Climate Change
Climate Risk Podcast
Hear from Emma Howard Boyd CBE, Chair of the London Climate Resilience Review, as we dive into the challenges of climate adaptation and what it means for our cities. 2023 was not only the warmest year on record, it also marked the warmest 10-year period on record. As we witness first-hand the impacts of a warming climate, including heatwaves, more intense precipitation and increased flooding, the case for building resilience against these risks becomes ever more important. This is particularly so in our cities, where the concentration of populations and economic activity make adaptation...
info_outlineHear from George Marshall, Author of “Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired To Ignore Climate Change,” as we dive into the psychology of climate change.
If you follow this podcast, you probably already have a good understanding of the nature of climate change, the risks it poses and why we need to act decisively and with urgency. But many people don’t listen to the podcast, and even if they did, they might think it was a lot of nonsense. Depending on people’s worldview, values, and socio-cultural background, the same message can be interpreted in many ways. That’s why in today’s episode, we’re focusing on the psychology of climate change. We’ll be exploring questions such as:
· What is it about the human brain that makes it so hard for us to accept the reality of climate change and take steps to address it?
· How is it possible that, when presented with overwhelming evidence of climate change, even the evidence of our own eyes, we can still choose to ignore it?
· And given our biases and shortcomings, how can we still find effective ways to communicate the dangers of climate change to audiences that are typically closed off to receiving those messages?
To find out more about the Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR®) Certificate, follow this link: https://www.garp.org/scr
For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Global Sustainability and Climate Risk Resource Center: https://www.garp.org/sustainability-climate
If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: [email protected]
Speaker’s Bio
George Marshall, Author and Climate Change Communication Expert
George is a consultant in the public communication of climate change, and the psychological obstacles to attitude and behaviour change. His key interest is the design of narratives that can build a consensus for climate action across the whole of society. His insights draw on hundreds of focus groups and structured interviews listening to people expressing their hopes, fears and doubts about climate change.
His book “Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change”, explores the social and psychological obstacles to climate action. It is currently on its seventh printing and was listed by Esquire as one of the ‘15 essential books on climate change.’