Towards a ‘liveable future’ with Psychology

The United Nations (UN) has recognised the climate emergency as the greatest global challenge of our time. There is now wide scientific consensus on the impact of global warming on climate change and biodiversity and a recognition of the impact of the climate emergency on life on Earth.

In their recent Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) gave its final warning about the consequences of ineffective reductions in emissions. They describe not only the deadly impact of the climate emergency on agricultural systems, water scarcity, and food production but also the human cost to other sustainable development issues, such as the eradication of poverty and addressing global inequalities.

However, both the IPCC and the World Health Organisation have recognised the potential for urgent action in diverting at least some of the potential damage and securing a 'liveable future' on Earth. Scientists across the globe now focus on creating sustainable solutions and climate change mitigation strategies: but meaningful change depends upon engagement, understanding, and effective cooperation.

The social sciences have begun to challenge notions that only the hard sciences can make valuable contributions to working towards net zero goals; see, for example, the ESRC-funded Advancing Capacity in Climate and Environment Social Science (ACCESS) project. Psychology and its varied subdisciplines span individual, collective, cognitive, political, and societal processes; human and non-human behaviours; and mental and physical health outcomes. We are ideally placed to contribute to tackling the climate emergency. Yet, outside of our discipline, this range and offer are often underappreciated. Psychology risks finding itself confined to debates about individual behaviour change.

Constructing a collaborative event

As our researchers and practitioners probe key issues linked with climate change and we are reminded of the imperative to act swiftly, the need to organise and collaborate has become more urgent. Over recent years, discussions within the member networks at British Psychological Society Senate meetings turned to how to move forward together.

Within the Social Psychology Section, we began to look for collaborators to create a climate event focused on what psychology can offer. We were soon joined by the Community Psychology Section, Qualitative Methods in Psychology Section, the Political Psychology Section, and one independent network: the Afro-Asian Critical Psychology Network. We sought to harness our shared passion, committing to pooling our resources to fund a virtual engagement and agenda-setting event that would help define a set of climate action-based priorities for psychologists.

We focused on conversations and sought to target our invites at scientists and change-makers working on climate issues from both inside and outside psychology. Together, we wanted to think about how psychologists should effectively engage decision-makers and community members with insights from psychology and allied disciplines. We engaged six experts to provide us with primer talks on areas we identified as providing key opportunities for psychological insight. On 2 June, we welcomed over 120 registered attendees from practice, research, education and the community spanning multiple subdisciplines and extending outside of psychology to our 'BPS Cross-Network Climate Emergency and Psychology Engagement Event: Establishing the Priorities for Psychology'.

Delegates joined us from across the globe (e.g., Singapore, India, South Africa, and the USA) and each brought their own expertise and positioning, many with roles within climate committees, action groups, and networks. Our guest speakers began our conversations on the mental health outcomes of climate change (Ms Caroline Hickman); coping with climate disasters and emergencies (Dr Evangelos Ntontis); global perspectives and inequalities (Dr Garret Barnwell); the barriers and facilitators of climate engagement (Professor Patrick Devine-Wright); power dynamics and political engagement (Dr Sharon Coen); and collective action, empowerment, and social change (Dr Serdar M. Değirmencioğlu). 

Following each primer talk, we spent time on each subject, psychology's priorities in this area, and barriers and facilitators of progress. Our discussions focused on the role of psychologists in relation to the media, governments, organisations, industry, clients, patients, funders, and communities. We deliberated over our positions and responsibilities as educators, disseminators, scientists, researchers, clinicians, and activists and discussed pathways to effective communication, knowledge exchange, and collective action. We also touched on the necessary input and support of organisations such as the BPS and employers and noted the good work of existing networks, but also the need to collaborate and connect both within and across disciplines and systems.

Outcomes and priorities

Our discussions were recorded and quickly collated using multiple methods. Initial analysis of attendee responses has identified the ten following areas of priority work:

• Climate justice: Psychologists should be involved in revealing lived experiences and exposing injustices in relation to impact, global inequalities, and climate action/activism.
• Mental health: Psychologists should help provide recognition of and support for the mental health consequences of the climate emergency and communicate these to key partners, groups, and decision-makers.
• Engagement: Psychologists should translate and effectively communicate scientific findings and engage in knowledge exchange with organisations, industry, decision-makers, and the public.
• Misinformation: Psychologists should be active in exposing and tackling processes of misinformation, misunderstanding, and conspiracy in relation to climate change within the media, organisations, governments, industry, and the community.
• Education: Psychology education should include issues relating to sustainability, the environment, and climate change and educational institutions should help set new norms through engagement in positive climate practice.
• Disaster and emergency response: The skills and expertise of psychologists should be utilised and appropriately supported within disaster relief contexts and in responding to emergencies in terms of therapeutic intervention and support provision, navigating relational issues, and guiding community, governmental, and systems-based responses.
• Collective Action: Psychological knowledge should be used to promote understanding of the utility of organised collective action and psychologists should be active in communicating the urgency of the climate emergency and reducing the impact of climate change based on evidence-based insights.
• Collaboration: Psychologists should seek to collaborate with key organisations and across scientific disciplines and subdisciplines. Organisations with a supportive capacity for psychologists should promote cross-disciplinary working and provide leadership in these areas.
• Supporting Cultural and Social Change: Psychological insights should be used to support the development of leadership in the areas of decision-making, behavioural adaptation, and the creation of new norms within our own institutions, research and social cultures, and disciplinary contexts, as well as those of the public, industry, and decision-makers. The focus should be on turning intentions into action.
• Promoting Trust and Engagement: Psychological knowledge and expertise should be used to build a sense of equality and empowerment, as well as trust in science and political decision-makers to encourage engagement across age groups, communities, nations, and organisational structures. 

In our final session, we used Mentimeter to ask attendees for a few words about: What do you think are the main issues psychologists should be tackling in relation to the climate emergency? These are represented in the image with this piece, reflecting the ten priorities above.

The discussion also included a number of practical and/or more specific suggestions, including additional funding to support the provision of hybrid conferencing, incentivisation or recognition of climate-friendly research proposals by funders, the creation of an Environmental Psychology Member Network in the BPS, and the linking of networks and bodies such as the BPS Climate Coordinating Group with the ACCESS network (amongst other climate-focused networks and projects).

It was encouraging to have so many representatives of climate action groups and research networks together in the virtual room. Notably we were joined by members of the BPS Climate Action Coordinating Group, who will be providing the BPS statement on the climate emergency in the coming months.

We are keen that this event will be a conversation starter, not an isolated event. That sentiment was certainly shared with a resounding call to 'keep the dialogue and momentum going'. We will be releasing an event report detailing the findings of this cross-network event, which we will disseminate both within and outside of psychology.

Our hope is that this becomes a useful resource, but above all, we hope to have provided a source of connection and collaboration for those with a shared concern about the climate emergency and a passion to contribute to progress with insights from our rich and varied discipline.