International scientific conferences with the ambitious goal of motivating action on climate change can be overwhelming. In a Conference Brief the DRIFT and GATE (Governing and Accelerating Transformative Entrepreneurship) research team offers reflections on messages from the Paris Conference on climate change research "Our Common Future Under Climate Change".
During the first two days of the conference keynote speakers set the scene for a common message: Climate change is happening and adaptation to extremes needs to be complemented with transformative actions.
Additionally during the 4 day conference, the team also observed that there are dominant ways on how climate change and governance for climate change are framed from the presenting researchers. Altogether 5 additional messages were identified:
- Message 1: We need to escape the climate science communication lock in of doom and gloom towards creating narratives of hope and opportunity;
- Message 2: We need to understand climate change as an opportunity for sustainability and the delivery of multiple co-benefits;
- Message 3: Climate change is happening on multiple (nested, interconnected) scales involving multiple actors;
- Message 4: Cities offer tested solutions to deal with climate change transcending sectoral boundaries;
- Message 5: Climate scientists are navigating between science and policy/politics.
Read more about these messages and the discussion around them in the Conference Brief.