Climate Futures team member wins international climate communication award

Climate Futures team member Dr Gabi Mocatta has jointly won the 2022 IAMCR New Directions for Climate Communication Research Fellowship. This international climate change communication award by the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) and the International Environmental Communication Association (IECA) seeks to encourage a wide range of researchers to think creatively about new research approaches for climate change communication. Dr Mocatta won the award together with fellow University of Tasmania climate change communication researcher, Dr Chloe Lucas.

The award-winning submission was for a proposed major climate knowledge survey for young people in Australian schools. This will seek to establish  Australian children’s climate literacy, to develop a conceptual framework for a major, interactive learning platform, employing the climate communication modes established as best-practice for communicating with children to date and incorporating children’s own needs, preferences and ideas, as indicated by the research proposed in the award-winning submission.

This study builds on Curious Climate Schools, a UTAS School of Geography and Spatial Sciences initiative led by Dr Lucas and Dr Mocatta, which has engaged 1300 Tasmanian school students in climate change learning to date.