Resource Library

From the Paris decision to the Trump administration’s current push for offshore drilling, there’s plenty for activists to feel a bit down about these days. But it’s in moments like these where advocacy groups can play a critical role in keeping hope alive for our supporters, and underline for them that successes are possible. Today we review lessons from Tuesday’s Climate Advocacy Lab webinar on the timely topic of hope and empowerment.
Psychologists use the term “efficacy” to refer to the beliefs people hold about the abilities they (and groups they are part of) possess to take action successfully and with the effect they desire. Efficacy beliefs have proven important predictors of many types of action taking, including climate and clean energy advocacy*, and experiments have shown that various types of messages (and even images of solar panels) can increase efficacy, and therefore action taking (or intentions to act)—a process in which feelings of hope play a role.
Efficacy comes in several flavors. Here are suggestions about how (and how not) to increase each kind of efficacy in your supporters.

There’s no way to sugarcoat it — 2017 was a rough year for our climate. From the Paris Agreement to countless EPA rollbacks, many of the gains achieved in recent years are in peril. At the same time, record storms and wildfires served as stark reminders of the need for sensible climate and clean energy policies at the federal, state, and local levels. Today, we provide the Lab’s perspective on a few significant climate-related stories from 2017, highlighting key insights on evidence-based approaches to confronting some of our biggest challenges.