Creative Communications

One of the OA Alliance’s core objectives is to increase awareness and visibility of ocean acidification as a climate-ocean impact and call for ambitious response. From 2024, the OA Alliance communications strategy places an emphasis on creative narrative building and storytelling. We are exploring creative ways to make the “unseen” impacts of climate-ocean change seen and emotionally felt, with the goal of motivating larger constituencies to action.

Our communications objectives include:

Clearly communicate ocean acidification and explain it within the context of climate change and its multiple impacts, including ocean warming and oxygen loss.

Clearly communicate that climate-ocean impacts are affecting people globally and locally.

Turn OA knowledge into action by showcasing the many opportunities for mitigation, preparedness, and response happening within our network.

Why?

Climate change is still not understood as directly linked to the ocean. Most people do not understand that the ocean is the Earth’s climate regulator and functions as the largest carbon sink and heat absorber. Most larger ocean NGOs, and most climate-ocean policy makers, do not understand the direct impact of CO2and GHG emissions on our ocean, or the consequences for ecosystems, species and human communities.
There is a layer of inequity. 70% of all OA knowledge is currently produced in N. America and European countries, demonstrating a huge equity gap when it comes to taking effective action.
The OA Alliance unites a network of government and non-government members who are committed to take climate-ocean action, including tangible ocean acidification projects. We want to provide a platform to showcase their work to inspire understanding, emotional resonance, and change.
Social-psychological research shows that simply generating knowledge and awareness toward protecting the environment—including the ocean—very rarely produces behavior change. (source)
UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 (Life Below Water) is the least funded Sustainable Development Goal, which shows a lack of relevance and urgency. We must draw attention to SDG target 14.3 “to minimize and reduce the effects of ocean acidification” along with the policy and funding ambition needed to achieve it.

Projects under our communications programme are increasing the reach and impact of our messages with new channels of communication and complementing our existing science-to-policy communications efforts.