Humanizing climate services
Sweden faces increasing climate-related risks, from floods to extreme heat, with events like the 2021 Gävle flood and heatwaves in Stockholm underscoring urgent adaptation needs. While climate services offer high-quality data and tools, their impact on local decision-making and public behavior remains limited.
The challenge lies not in a lack of science-supported information and visualizations that represent both uncertainty and confidence, but in a gap between knowledge and use. Conventional formats – climate reports, web-based user interfaces, and hazard risk maps –are primarily designed for technically trained users, and therefore key messages are often poorly understood or misinterpreted by broader audiences. These formats seldom support intuitive interpretation by non-experts and typically fail to engage users emotionally or culturally.
Objectives and Vision
The Humanizing Climate Services project directly addresses this usability gap. It explores a new approach to communication of climate change impacts that complements traditional services by integrating creative, participatory, and narrative-driven methods. The aim is not to simplify scientific information but to reframe it in ways that are locally meaningful, emotionally engaging, and accessible across disciplines and demographics. This process enables citizens and decision-makers to connect emotionally and cognitively with climate data, to better understand future conditions and uncertainty in projections. The project aligns with growing national and municipal interest in public engagement and behaviorally informed adaptation. It also supports Sweden’s climate adaptation strategy by fostering shared responsibility and preparedness in the face of future risk.
Consortium and Collaborative Expertise
KTH and SMHI
Methodology and Innovative Approaches
The project offers a novel response by combining scientific data with artistic and narrative methods to generate new types of climate services. Drawing from behavioral science and recent work on “storylines” as a tool for climate communication, the project proposes to engage users with plausible future scenarios that are grounded in place and emotion, rather than abstract probabilities. These scenarios will be co-created through participatory workshops and translated into diverse media formats.
Impact and Significance
The project aims to strengthen climate awareness, engagement, and preparedness among citizens, decision-makers, and organizations. By fostering emotional and cultural connections to climate services, it encourages shared responsibility, informed action, and long-term adaptation aligned with Sweden’s national climate goals.
Project period
December 2025-December 2027
Funding
Formas
Contact person
