The world’s best initiatives raising awareness on climate change: the CMCC Climate Change Communication Award “Rebecca Ballestra”

Climate change is one of the most prominent challenges of our times. A pervasive topic that actively involves countless actors around the world, conditioning every sector of society. More and more initiatives worldwide are devoted to spreading awareness on climate change and engaging the public to bring the change we need. 

In this context, the CMCC Climate Change Communication Award “Rebecca Ballestra” showcases and promotes innovative projects and initiatives that deliver engaging messages and communicate climate change in education, advocacy, media production and social engagement activities through different forms of communication such as art, theatre, video making, music, photography, journalism, gaming, education, data visualization, and the use of digital channels and tools.

Through this initiative, the CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change is building an innovative and continuously growing global platform (www.cmccaward.eu) that collects and rewards the best climate communication projects worldwide, and connects their authors in a network that fosters collaborations, offers opportunities and opens a space of discussion for climate change communication experts.

Now at its second edition, the CMCC Award honours the memory of the artist Rebecca Ballestra, who was committed to shaping a sustainable future and promoting positive transformation processes in the fields of science, humanities, economy, ecology and art and collaborated with the CMCC in various cultural initiatives.

The CMCC Award focuses on projects that:

• increase public awareness on climate change and its interactions with society, the economy, the environment, and policy-making processes;
• disseminate science-based information and data related to climate change through the application of innovative ideas, technologies and methodologies in the field of media, journalism, and communication at large;
• communicate the threats and opportunities posed by the climate change challenge using multiple languages and innovative mediums, including journalism, art, videos and music;
• trigger action in the audiences addressed, including students, consumers, businesses and politicians.

The biennial initiative is developed through:

• a Call for Proposals to collect the best ongoing climate communication projects from all over the world. Over 100 projects were admitted from the 1st call for proposals. The 2nd call for proposals was launched in November 2022 at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt and will close in June 2023;
• a series of online and in-person events in which international experts in the field of climate change communication debate with scientists on the best strategies, initiatives and solutions to build a stronger awareness on the climate crisis;
• the evaluation of the admitted projects by an international Jury of outstanding experts;
• the final event hosting the Award Ceremony, climax of the initiative, during which the winners and other selected projects have the opportunity to present their work; 

a series of interviews, articles and podcasts on the CMCC magazine climateforesight.eu in collaboration with the authors of the best projects.