Communicating Climate Change Messages in Hong Kong

The 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that warming of the climate system is unequivocal and it is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause. Yet how to get the message across to the mostly unsuspecting populace in a meaningful manner remains a challenge, particularly for most of the people in Hong Kong who are urban dwellers living in protected environment and working in air-conditioned buildings. Yet the undeniable truth is that since the late 19th century, Hong Kong has been experiencing a significant warming trend, due to urbanization effects as well as climate change. Apart from more hot days, extreme precipitation events have also become more frequent and the mean sea level has been rising in an unambiguous trend. Hong Kong has just experienced a year of record-breaking high temperatures in 2015, and then a month of cold and wet extremes in January 2016. As such, it is not just a matter of trying to put together a convincing story about events that would only happen many years down the line; it is just as important and may be even more effective to sound the alarms about the clear and present danger associated with global warming.

The Hong Kong Observatory has been actively promoting public education on climate change through a multi-pronged approach with broadcast media as a major communication channel: (a) collaborating with public broadcaster to produce an awarding-winning TV documentary series “Met Series IV” which looks into the underlying causes and impact of extreme weather phenomena with climate change as background; (b) leveraging resources and material collected by weather enthusiasts to produce short videos on tropical cyclone hazards to raise the public's awareness, on behalf of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and World Meteorological Organization Typhoon Committee; and (c) making use of in-house produced educational TV weather programme to promulgate climate change messages. This paper will highlight the results achieved and review the effectiveness of the strategies adopted.