Introduction: Why Narratives Matter in Climate Change Communication

Abstract

To understand the nature of the political and public debate about climate change, we need to understand the narrative structures that produce this discourse. Narratives, occurring in media, in public discourse, political agenda or even scientific debate, are vehicles for complex phenomena, such as climate change. The science behind this, the intricate interrelations and differences between daily weather occurrences and climate, between various factors – from natural causes to a changing climate to anthropogenic climate change – and the sheer amount of voices in this debate, make climate change a hard topic to sell. Climate change policies are complicated and in need to factor in a large amount of different aspects. As “story-telling animals”, we perceive facts, numbers and urgent appeals that surround climate change inherently as a story.