Abstract
As leaders of civil society, governments have a prime responsibility to communicate climate change information in order to motivate their citizens to mitigate and adapt. This study compares the approaches of the U.K. and Hong Kong governments. Although different in size and population, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong have similar climate change agendas to communicate to similarly educated and prosperous populations. The study finds that while both governments use similar means: policy, education, campaigns, internet, and social media, these have different characteristics, with different emphases in their climate change message. The United Kingdom’s top-down approach is more prominent in its legally binding policy and well-defined programs for adaptation and risk assessment. Hong Kong has more effectively embedded climate change education across the school curricula and has a more centralized and consistently branded campaign, with widespread use of visual language to connect the public to the problem. Hong Kong frames climate change as a science–society problem and has a greater focus on self-responsibility and bottom-up behavioral change. Thus, the U.K. and Hong Kong governments have polarized approaches to motivating their citizens into climate action. Moving forward, both governments should consider best practice elements of the other to develop their communication of climate change.
Significance Statement
Governments have a key responsibility to communicate information about climate change in order to raise public awareness about the risks of climate change and also to motivate actions and change beliefs. This article compares the different approaches of the U.K. and Hong Kong governments in terms of policy, reports, education, campaigns, and social media. It finds that the United Kingdom has prominent adaptation and risk assessment programs mandated by policy, whereas Hong Kong has more effectively embedded climate change education in the school curricula and has a more centralized and consistently branded campaign with increased focus on self-responsibility and behavioral change. Both governments must evaluate their communication approaches to show effective leadership and response to the “climate emergency.”
© 2021 American Meteorological Society. For information regarding reuse of this content and general copyright information, consult the AMS Copyright Policy (www.ametsoc.org/PUBSReuseLicenses).
