Title reads 'Talking Change How Climate Conversations can Shift Public Attitudes and Help Build Movements'. Icon of two people with speech bubbles. Background image is a collage of photos with dried cracked earth and windfarms.

Talking Change: How Climate Conversations can Shift Public Attitudes and Help Build Movements

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Introduction

This article draws on findings from a 2025 research project conducted by the Advocacy Research Network in partnership with the Climate Justice Coalition. The project combined a review of academic literature on climate communication, volunteer engagement, and movement-building with in-depth interviews conducted with ten experienced climate advocates from across Australia.

These interviewees came from a mix of national NGOs, grassroots networks, and community campaigns. They had experience with a range of conversation formats—including door-knocking, kitchen table conversations, and digital outreach.

By weaving together research insights and on-the-ground experience, this article explores why conversations can be an effective tool for shifting attitudes, inspiring action, and growing the climate movement.

1. From Protest to Persuasion: A Strategic Shift

On a summer morning in 2024, groups of young climate activists walked down to Chowder Bay beach in Sydney, armed not with protest banners but with conversation guides and clipboards. Within hours, they’d had nearly 50 climate conversations with beachgoers—and most people wanted to keep talking.

This scene from an Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) training retreat signals a current focus on in-depth climate conversations to help raise awareness and increase action on climate change.

Conversations are particularly well-suited to communicating climate justice because they allow people to connect local experiences—such as rising costs, health impacts, or land changes—to broader systemic causes, building understanding in ways that abstract messages or media campaigns often cannot.

As the frequency and impact of mass protests have waned due to COVID disruptions, tightening protest laws, and social fragmentation, activists are returning to something older and more personal: talking.

“Conversations are your biggest asset in creating an impact… your biggest organising asset in your toolbox,” – AYCC organiser. 

This isn’t just a tactical shift—it’s a research-backed one. Studies show that face-to-face conversations remain the most persuasive form of communication, especially when delivered by a trusted peer or local figure. Unlike rallies or online posts, conversations allow for personalisation, back-and-forth dialogue, and emotional connection: all key ingredients in reducing defensiveness and increasing belief change.

2. Why Conversations Work: The Psychological Edge

Unlike mass messaging, climate conversations can provide emotional connection between people, build trust, and help inform and persuade others that climate change and climate justice is important and relevant to them.

Advocacy Research Network compiled research and frontline experience of activists who have engaged in climate conversations programs, which demonstrated that values-based dialogue rather than technical facts might have the greatest power to change minds. 

People are more likely to connect and respond to the issue of climate change through personal stories than lectures. Crucially, volunteers don’t need to be climate experts; in fact, over-preparing them can backfire. As one Climate for Change organiser explained:

“People [who volunteer to do door-knocking conversations] always feel like they want more information. But the more information you give… the more overwhelmed they feel.” 

Designing a conversation script that prioritises shared stories, values, and local relevance can inform people but also build a shared sense of identity between people having conversations. This matters, because identifying as someone who cares about climate change is an important prerequisite to actually wanting to do something about it. 

This is important no matter how the conversations are held. Peer-led and emotionally grounded formats like kitchen table conversations as well as market stall conversations and door-knocking conversations can help people shift from passive agreement to personal identification with climate action.

“It’s about [helping people] discover what the threat is to their community and how they want to respond to it… [it was] a grassroots democracy that we were developing,” – Anonymous organiser 

Importantly, conversations aren’t about abstract persuasion. Best-practice programs focus on the “persuadable middle” and not hardened opponents. They also frame conversations with personal stories and emotional connection in order to make both participants feel like they have both the ability and confidence to take action.

Indeed, both the research and experience shared by activists showed that participants are more likely to respond when they hear a story they relate to and feel they’re being invited into a shared journey, not when they are being corrected or confronted.

3. Tailoring the Message: One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Effective conversation programs recognise that climate conversations are more likely to be successful when they are both location- and identity-specific. As one campaigner working in regional Victoria noted:

“The conversation is very different in Moe [near the Latrobe Valley]… you’re not going to win over the power station worker with a greenie type. You want a power station worker or tradie talking to them.” 

Research supports this. Trusted messengers – people who share the listener’s background, values, or community – can be more persuasive than outsiders.

For groups designing conversation programs this can mean reaching out to people already active in their own local communities. For example, they could look to involve unions, churches, and neighbourhood groups as conversation hosts or partners, particularly in communities where climate action may be viewed with suspicion. 

Highlighting local issues is also important for demonstrating how climate change is personally connected to people’s own local communities. This means foregrounding local impacts when holding conversations. Locally relevance also can also play an important role in recruiting volunteers to lead those conversations.

Conversation programs that support peer-to-peer training and allow local adaptation and relationship building using structures such as “conversation captains” or “brief-do-debrief” formats tend to build volunteer confidence and campaign success. Working together as a team can build friendships and relationships that can help maintain volunteering over the long term. As an AYCC organiser recounted:

“We paired them up in groups of three… they had these conversations with people… it was really motivating and exciting for the volunteer leaders.”

4. From First Chat to Civic Engagement

Climate conversations are not just about shifting beliefs. Many groups aim to use these conversations to also boost volunteer participation and help grow the movement. 

Some activists involved in the Advocacy Research Network research project felt that running their persuasive conversation program helped boost recruitment, even while they noted that doing conversations can be daunting for new volunteers at the start. For example, one organiser at 350.org said the conservation-focused election effort “almost tripled” their core volunteer base.

The link between conversation and civic action is also borne out in the research. Programs that include multi-stage engagement, such as inviting attendees to host their own conversation after participating in an initial conversation, can help create “feedback loops” between belief and behaviour.

Initial conversations can raise awareness, with subsequent conversations then developing activism identity and action.

However, sustaining volunteer engagement in climate conversations requires meaningful follow-up. As one organiser noted, “you don’t want to leave someone with nothing to do after the conversation.”

They stressed the need to plan concrete next steps, whether events, sticker drives, or WhatsApp groups, so people can do something after a conversation and feel part of a broader journey. 

It’s not just about immediate action. Programs that emphasise peer leadership, public celebration, and opportunities to learn are more likely to retain volunteers and build a lasting base. The most successful programs don’t just offer tasks: they offer belonging, impact, and personal growth

5. Why Conversations Work: Key Principles Explained

  • Values-first, not facts-first
    Emotional stories and shared values outperform technical facts in engaging people. Grounding conversations in what matters to people—family, community, justice—can help build trust and open minds to new information and ideas.
  • Trust matters: use local messengers
    Listeners can be more receptive when they know or relate to the speaker. Programs that involve churches, unions, or community leaders can help advocacy groups reach deeper into diverse constituencies, strengthen local connections, and build credibility.
  • Flexible formats for different goals
    Door-knocking reaches many people quickly but can sometimes offer shallow engagement. While kitchen table conversations enable richer, more personal discussions, they can also be time consuming and entail a heavy administration burden. Using both – as well as other approaches such as market stalls and phone calls – can expand both reach and depth.
  • Conversations shift identity, not just opinion
    When people talk about climate as part of who they are—not just what they know—they’re more likely to take action and stay involved. Peer-to-peer models help build this activist identity, as well as building in personal stories and locally relevant information into the conservation script.
  • Talking grows movements
    Conversations don’t just persuade, they also recruit by showing people ways to take action on climate change. Volunteers are more likely to join and stay when they’ve participated in a conversation, hosted one, or seen the visible impact of their effort. Providing buddies and consistent support can help volunteers learn and practice effective conversation techniques, as well as build friendships to help keep them active in the movement in the future.

5. Further Resources for Designing Climate Conversations

These toolkits and guides were compiled through the research project’s literature review and interview process. They include Australian resources as well as easy to apply international guides used or referenced by Australian practitioners.

The Cairns and Far North Environment Centre (CAFNEC) Resources

National & International Guides


Potential Energy Coalition Resources


Additional Communication and Inclusion Guides

Explore more resources related to this article and 2025 research project conducted by the Advocacy Research Network, in partnership with the Climate Justice Coalition.

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