Climate Change and Sustainability Communication—A Socio-Psychological Analysis

Abstract

With the COVID-19 pandemic and associated loss to individual incomes as well as global economies, the disparities and inequalities in information access are further widened in developing countries, and the ‘digital divide’ expands the gap further between the ‘front-runners’ and ‘back-seaters’ of climate change and sustainability communication. This trend of widening division in different societies reinforces the already strained economies causing distortions in socio-cultural and ecological environment of almost all the regions. It warrants assuming responsibility on the part of individuals, institutions as well as governance systems worldwide to redesign their relationships with each other and the natural environment. A psychological and social process of understanding among diverse population groups with a vision for sustainability and a solution-oriented mindset can possibly make it happen. The chapter analyses and evaluates climate change and sustainability communication from a transdisciplinary perspective integrating communication models and concepts from the disciplines of philosophy, psychology, sociology, and political science. Further, it draws examples from diverse fields of understanding and proposes its application as a management tool.