Communicating with policy makers about climate change, health, and their intersection: a scoping review

Abstract

Ambitious policies are urgently needed to protect human health from the impacts of climate change. Civil society, including researchers and advocates, can help advance such policies by communicating with policy makers. In this scoping review, we examined what is known about effectively communicating with policy makers to encourage them to act on public health, climate change, or their nexus. We analysed 139 studies published in the literature on health, climate, and their intersection that focused on strategies for communicating with policy makers. Among many other recommendations, the most frequently recommended communication strategies were to tailor messaging to target audiences; share accessible, concise, and timely evidence; and build coalitions and trusted relationships. The studies were largely about health communication to policy makers, were predominantly based in high-income countries, and most frequently used case studies, interviews, and surveys as methods. Further experimental research is needed to test the findings generated by non-experimental methods. Additionally, future research should seek to generate and test communication strategies in more low-income and middle-income countries. Based on this literature, we have produced a list of strategic questions that communicators might wish to consider as they prepare to communicate with policy makers.