On the effectiveness of climate change communication at the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium

Climate change communication has only been for the last four years an important subject of the external communication at the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (RMI). Generally, science communication at RMI happens along the traditional (information) deficit model.

In the context of climate change communication, the institute positions itself as the source of scientific knowledge to be disseminated to the Belgian population, who is constructed as a passive recipient who needs to be informed about the physical causes and consequences of climate change. The use of this deficit communication model aims to mainstream and depoliticize climate change in order to decrease disagreement and build widespread consent for climate action (Pepermans and Maeseele, 2017).

Nevertheless, several studies have demonstrated that the deficit model is often not fit for purpose for informing policy or effectively communicating science (Ballantyne, 2016). Hence, to improve the reach of RMI’s target audiences as well as the communication of the messages, ongoing climate change communication initiatives at RMI are assessed by means of the essential elements for effective (science) communication (Who?, To whom?, How? What?, Why?, How much?, When?). 

The external communication at RMI is organised along a so-called ‘antenna model’. In this organisational model, the communication is organised by a central communication service and several ‘communication antennae’ which are staff members of other services of the institute with expertise in specific scientific subjects and who also have good communication skills. Linked to the important need and increasing interest from the general public and news media for information on extreme weather and the role of climate change herein, recent assigned roles of ‘communication antennae’ or fixed contact points for these topics have been proven to be of a great added value for the climate change communication at the institute.

Other elements to assess the effectiveness of RMI’s climate change communication are based upon concrete examples and experiences, such as the warming stripes for Brussels which were presented on national television by the weather presenter during the #ShowYourStripes-day in 2021, a podcast by a well-known Belgian weather presenter and a climate scientist of RMI, a Climate Report which summarizes the important results on RMI’s climatological observations, and the past and possible future climate trends, and press releases and web articles on climate change which are mainly triggered by extreme weather events.

Overall, the assessment identifies to what extent the climate change communication at RMI happens in an efficient way, what are the priorities of the climate change communication, as well as what are the obstacles and challenges.