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Assumptions and contradictions shape public engagement on climate change

Nature Climate Change volume 14, pages 126–133 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Public engagement on socioscientific issues is crucial to explore solutions to different crises facing humanity today. It is vital for fostering transformative change. Yet, assumptions shape whether, when and how engagement happens on a pressing issue like climate change. Here we examine three dominant assumptions—engaging the public involves power-sharing and not just information, investing in relationships can lead to mutually desirable outcomes, and more interaction is better to support engagement in climate change governance. Furthermore, we explore the implications of these assumptions and related contradictions. We offer insights to stimulate discussion on the need to understand, assess and revise implicit assumptions that might undermine the capacity to transform public engagement on climate change.

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Fig. 1: A schematic representation of Arnstein’s ladder and the IAP2 spectrum of participation.
Fig. 2: Assumptions shaping public engagement.

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Acknowledgements

We thank E. Ogier for feedback on an early draft. This work was supported by the Tasmanian Research Graduate Scholarship (TGRS) to M.M. and an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship to G.P.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    Michael Murunga, Catriona Macleod & Gretta Pecl

  2. Centre for Marine Socioecology (CMS), University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    Michael Murunga, Catriona Macleod & Gretta Pecl

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M.M. conceived the initial idea and led the writing. M.M., G.P. and C.M. contributed critically to the development of the study. All authors contributed to writing and revising the drafts, and gave final approval for publication.

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Correspondence to Michael Murunga.

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Nature Climate Change thanks Dominique Coy, Lucilla Losi, Debashish Munshi and Heidi Roop for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Murunga, M., Macleod, C. & Pecl, G. Assumptions and contradictions shape public engagement on climate change. Nat. Clim. Chang. 14, 126–133 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01904-0

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