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The climate risk metricsÌýproject

Creating new tools that help usÌýcommunicate and understand climate change is an important step towardsÌýmeaningful action on this issue. Metrics are one such tool - they are widely usedÌýtoÌýbuildÌýnarratives and to evaluateÌýchangeÌýover time.

During Covid-19,Ìýthe R-number allowed communicators to quickly inform the public of how the crisis was evolving. In the UK, at least, it was the go-to metric for reporters and politicians. Now, the Climate Action Unit (CAU) is taking learningsÌýfrom the global health emergency and applying them to the way climate change is discussed.

Practical, impactful metrics

During the past 18 months, theÌýCAU has worked with a range of expertsÌýto ascertainÌýwhich metrics would have the greatest positive impact (and which would be most practical to use)Ìýfor thoseÌýengaged in communicating climate change. The metrics also needed to contextualise climate change within people's everyday lives.

Through a series ofÌýworkshops and discussions, the following three metrics were selected:Ìý

1. Earth's energy imbalance
2. Rate of temperature change
3. Unusualness of weather

The CAU gathered data for each of these metrics from scientists at NOAA, Berkley Earth and Newcastle University and, working with Data4Change, convened a multinational group of designers from 4-6th November 2022 to create visual representations of the metrics.

Climate science + creatives:Ìýthe design sprintÌý

At a venue in Walthamstow, London, designers were split into three teams and set the task of creating visuals for theÌýmetrics soÌýthat they could be usedÌýby the media, policymakers and the wider public.

At the start of the sprint, teams were given time to ask questions about the metrics and gain aÌýgood grounding in the key scientific concepts. Next, they undertookÌýa series ofÌýbrainstorming sessions to generate ideas on how best to communicate the concepts - featuringÌýlots of drawing and mind-mapping.Ìý

In the second half of the sprint,Ìýthe teamsÌýbuiltÌýand refined their protoypes before presenting themÌý- as can be seen below. At the end of the design sprint, three families of metrics were ready to take for audience testing.

CAU Project Assistant, Annie Risner, noted:

"It was incredible to see what could be achieved in just two days with three different visualisations - all of which will now be taken for testing with the media and wider public, beforeÌýtheÌýfinal trio is released for useÌýnext year."

Check out this video created by to see the sprint in action:

At our latest sprint, we collaborated with scientists from and creatives from our network to explore how to communicate 3 new (and much-needed) climate change metrics. We can't share the prototypes publicly just yet...but we can tell you they are flippin' AMAZING!

— data4change (@data4change)

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