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The climate change issue attention cycle Module

The case of attention to climatic change is illustrated in Figure 2. This graph charts levels of public 3
interest in climate change as indicated by coverage of the issue in the elite newspapers of several
countries. While the graph only shows the media coverage, additional research carried out by the

Social Learning Group suggests that the levels of attention accorded to climate change in the elite
media correlated strongly with levels of attention shown to it at the same period in time by other
actors such as parliaments, industry groups and the scientific community. The media data can thus
be taken as a rough reflection of overall changes in levels of attention to global environmental risks Abu Dhabi, UAE
among actors.

Of particular interest in this graph is the one- or two-year period of rapidly increasing attention, then
a year or two with the issue in high profile, and finally a slow decline of public attention back to lower
levels. Over sufficiently long periods, recurrent cycles of public attention are possible (possibly indicating
that lower attention levels have more to do with the emergence of new priorities. or media and public
fatigue, rather than a resolution to the problem).

Much as in the cases of acid rain and stratospheric ozone depletion, climate change was an expert issue
long before it became a public one. There was relatively little attention to climate change in the press of
any arena prior to 1988, despite decades of sustained scientific work. In this case, “issue linkage” appears

to have been a critical factor in getting climate change onto the agenda of the public and policy-makers.
The rise of stratospheric ozone depletion to the political agenda forced a certain amount of political
attention in at least some national and international arenas to the issue of global climate change.

Also important was the role of political leadership. During the last two decades high-ranking politicians

in many of the politically powerful arenas started to speak about the need to take action regarding
a global warming threat. Their attention was secured by proactive, strategic and personal efforts on
the part of scientists and concerned citizens working in NGOs. This put political momentum behind
scientific developments in several arenas.

Climate change remained on the public agenda even when media attention to stratospheric ozone
depletion began to decline. In the period after the data collected for Figure 2, evidence suggests that
attention dropped sharply in most arenas towards the mid-1990s before rising again in the run-up
to the Kyoto Conference of 1997 (Social Learning Group,2001). This might signal that once an issue
receives a high level of both public interest and political support, it will remain on the bureaucratic

agenda even though public interest may shift to other concerns.
? For the impact strategy, it is important to be aware of where the issue that is to be assessed lies
with respect to the attention cycle. If the issue is in the first phase, in which most attention to the

IEA Training Manual Workshop for the National Reporting Toolkit (NRT) 13