TY - JOUR

T1 - Public understanding of climate change terminology in Germany

AU - Wege, Lena

AU - de Bruin, Wändi Bruine

AU - Kause, Astrid

N1 - Funding Information: We thank Sina L\u00F6schke from the IPCC Working Group II\u2019s communications team for informing the interview protocol, Neele B\u00FCnning for her support during interview analysis and two anonymous reviewers. Funding Information: Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. This work was supported by internal funding of Leuphana University of L\u00FCneburg (FAF 73100081). The authors declare that no other funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024.

PY - 2024/5/15

Y1 - 2024/5/15

N2 - The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other institutions communicate about climate change to international audiences without a background in climate science, including the general public. The effectiveness of climate change communications may be undermined by their use of complex terminology. Bruine de Bruin et al. (2021) found that Americans struggled to understand key terms from IPCC reports. Here, we examined how 24 Germans interpreted German translations of these key terms, including tipping point, unprecedented transition, carbon neutral, carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere, adaptation, mitigation of climate change/ of greenhouse gas emissions, sustainable development, and abrupt change. We also presented these terms in the context of sentences taken from German-language IPCC reports. We identified common themes and misunderstandings. Overall, 93% of the themes arose by the 10th interview, and no new themes arose after the 18th interview. While interviewees initially rated most terms as easy to understand, both climate-concerned and climate-ambivalent interviewees were unfamiliar with some terms or combinations of terms, unsure of the link to climate change, and confused about details. Some also expressed mistrust. Moreover, all sentences were perceived as too long and complex. We discuss the implications of these findings for climate change communications.

AB - The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other institutions communicate about climate change to international audiences without a background in climate science, including the general public. The effectiveness of climate change communications may be undermined by their use of complex terminology. Bruine de Bruin et al. (2021) found that Americans struggled to understand key terms from IPCC reports. Here, we examined how 24 Germans interpreted German translations of these key terms, including tipping point, unprecedented transition, carbon neutral, carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere, adaptation, mitigation of climate change/ of greenhouse gas emissions, sustainable development, and abrupt change. We also presented these terms in the context of sentences taken from German-language IPCC reports. We identified common themes and misunderstandings. Overall, 93% of the themes arose by the 10th interview, and no new themes arose after the 18th interview. While interviewees initially rated most terms as easy to understand, both climate-concerned and climate-ambivalent interviewees were unfamiliar with some terms or combinations of terms, unsure of the link to climate change, and confused about details. Some also expressed mistrust. Moreover, all sentences were perceived as too long and complex. We discuss the implications of these findings for climate change communications.

KW - Sustainability Science

KW - climate communication

KW - expert terminology

KW - Psychology

KW - language

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85193400996&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10584-024-03725-2

DO - 10.1007/s10584-024-03725-2

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 177

JO - Climatic Change

JF - Climatic Change

SN - 0165-0009

IS - 5

M1 - 81

ER -