Global warming', ' climatic change' or 'climate imbalance' ? An experimental study on the effectiveness of climate change semantic expressions and imagery

This paper is intended to explain the impact of visual and linguistic communications related to climate change, as employed in the media, on perceptions and attitudes towards decarbonisation. An experimental study based on approaches using collage and linguistic semantics is conducted in order to assess the effectiveness of climate change communication on French behaviour (sample size N = 126). Our findings show that only a small percentage of consumers are actually focused on alternative imaginaries of consumption. Climate change communication serves to activate concerns and perceptions about the causes and consequences of climate change more than the specific solutions and intentions to decarbonise. Broad differences are also found in individuals' responses with regard to their perception, self-efficacy and sensitivity specific to this issue. Mitigating the effects of climate change implies a new communication strategy. The stakeholders (governments, NGOs, corporations, etc.) would need to address this phenomenon optimistically, by promoting solution discourses for disaster scenarios and segmenting their communications. In contrast however, apathetic behaviour continues to spread despite multiple warnings pointing to its tragic consequences. The literature lacks substantial knowledge of the causes and consequences due to the failure of climate change communication campaigns to influence consumer behaviour. This study demonstrates that climate change is not just a political or socio-economic issue, but also a marketing problem that generates consumer barriers to decarbonisation.