We gathered insights from global stakeholders to create tailored messaging and a communications strategy for Clean Air Fund, highlighting why tackling black carbon is a ‘win-win’ for climate and health.
Clean Air Fund
Accelerating action on black carbon
challenge
Super pollutants, like methane, black carbon (soot) and tropospheric ozone, are responsible for half of global warming. Yet while black carbon is pushing the world closer to critical climate tipping points, damaging ecosystems and harming human health, few countries have made binding commitments to reduce emissions.
Clean Air Fund wanted to develop an evidence-informed approach to black carbon communications to help drive international and regional action by:
- Raising awareness and understanding of black carbon
- Providing messaging and communications guidance for priority stakeholders working on black carbon – or looking to integrate black carbon into their existing work on climate and health
solution
We worked with Clean Air Fund and a bespoke team of global partners over nine months conducting in-depth audience research and narrative testing in India, Kenya, Nigeria, Brazil, the US and Europe. The goal was to develop a globally relevant narrative on black carbon and a communications strategy to engage policymakers and decision-makers at global, regional and national levels.
We created and tested tailored messaging to provide the foundations for an evidence-informed communications strategy and delivery plan aimed at encouraging critical stakeholders like government officials, scientific researchers, representatives of health and climate NGOs, and political influencers to act on black carbon’s climate and health challenges.
The findings of this qualitative and quantitative research were distilled into a set of key principles for communicating black carbon’s impacts and encouraging action from stakeholders across the climate, air pollution and health sectors. These principles emphasised factors including the importance of positive, action-oriented framing and the need for local proof points to engage different stakeholders around the world.
Both the principles and messages will be used to directly engage with policymakers and intergovernmental processes, as well as supporting wider communications activity on black carbon including in stakeholder toolkits and global thought leadership.
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priority stakeholders identified and interviewed to test messages
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priority regions were focus areas for research and testing (Europe, US, Brazil, Kenya, Nigeria, India)
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guiding principles created to support communications around black carbon and ensure they are relevant and action-oriented for each audience group
“Forster really helped us determine how to talk about black carbon to resonate with policymakers and governments in different countries. We’re excited to continue implementing the learnings from the project to drive action at a global scale.”
Anna Garson,
Portfolio Manager – Super Pollutants, Clean Air Fund
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