Now is the ocean’s time to shine in climate comms – here’s how.

How do you get audiences to engage with ocean protection? This was the question posed by The Nature Conservancy, a US-based NGO. I was brought in by Greenhouse Communications to lead the media side of a major audit.

We analysed 40,000 articles of global media coverage, 500,000 social posts, web content, and conducted around two dozen interviews with leading minds from ocean-focussed NGOs, as well as journalists, academics and a youth activist. 

A plethora of graphs, spreadsheets and post-it notes later, here’s what we know: 

Most people don’t really understand the ocean

As land-lubbers, the closest most of us get to understanding the ocean is admiring it from the coast. But it is “more than just a blue filter that has fish in it”, as one interviewee expressed. It is “a machine that runs on energy. And if you give it extra energy, the machine is going to change shape. And that's the problem.” 

It is, therefore, a huge dynamo, powering the earth’s climate which also supports an intricate web of ecosystems encompassing human, animal and plant life. The ocean has absorbed 90% of human-generated heat and 30% of our carbon. It has therefore been a climate hero. But it is now in peril and needs our help. 

First though, let’s fact-check the assumption that communications can actually influence policy. Well, campaigning by Oceana and others on trawling in Marine Protected Areas is resulting in the use of UK byelaws to safeguard these marine sanctuaries. Sustained calls over decades by Greenpeace and others finally led to the adoption of the High Seas Treaty in 2023. And communications amplifying the indigenous-inspired Rights of Nature movement is helping it to win court cases across the globe. (On this, an interviewee told us: “When we won the court case… it was actually the story about [ecological] function that people got their heads around…”)  

It is clear that campaigning can absolutely bring about policy change. Ocean storytelling is therefore a keystone in the bridge towards protection. 

This could be the ocean’s moment 

We tracked steadily rising mentions of the ocean across global media coverage over the past 15 months. It is a period which has seen the High Seas Treaty adopted, COP28’s Global Stocktake recognising the role of ocean in climate change more meaningfully than ever, multiple ocean conferences, the run-up to the UN Ocean Conference in 2025, a raft of ocean funding announcements, and a flood of interest in blue carbon and (deep breath) marine carbon dioxide removal. 

But we know that human interest is fickle. Several of the experts we spoke to are worried that rising interest in the ocean could evaporate. 

Given this, and the urgency of the climate and biodiversity crises, it is imperative that ocean storytelling is as compelling as possible.. So, how do we do that?

Localise the global

In our audit, we found that overarching themes like acidification and sea-level rise rarely lead ocean-climate coverage. What tends to lead instead are hard news items like extreme weather events (which garnered 42% of our audit’s climate-related media coverage). 

But there is a way for these large themes to generate headlines, and that is to make them locally-specific. Journalists we spoke to had found that this approach drove audience engagement in stories about cities like London and Nice.

It seems people want to read about hope-inspiring nature-based solutions like kelp restoration

Personalise the conceptual

It is a well-worn trope of communication that storytellers should put people at the heart of their narratives. But it is borne out by our media audit and interviews. Many of the most impactful examples of ocean communication start with the story of an individual. Sometimes they are pitted against a greater force in a David and Goliath-style framing, as in this BBC piece about a campaigner from Tuvalu. Sometimes they simply give voice to the impact of a broad issue.

Tangibility is key. Several interviewees talked about the effectiveness of appealing to audiences through the lens of consumerism. A journalist reported huge engagement with a series of articles about salmon fisheries, telling us “people eat fish and… I think people want to know ‘what does that mean for me?’”. Another interviewee said: “So when we can talk about local fishers and livelihoods or plastic pollution, or these things that are impacting people or places or things… I think this is where you see the most impact.”  

Know when it is time to ‘get out of the way’.

Many large NGOs are trying to shift away from top down implementation towards genuine partnership with indigenous peoples, local communities and ‘big ocean sovereign states’.  Our analysis of media coverage suggests that the fastest route to a lack of credibility in environmental conservation is to simply pay lip service to this. It is not difficult to find examples of communities calling out NGOs for inadequate consultation. 

Interviewees credit the birth of this shift not just from the sting of negative coverage or the threat of investigative reporting (take a bow Ian Urbina, who was cited approvingly by multiple interviewees) but also from the impact of global movements like #MeToo. 

NGOs are recognising this. One interviewee said: “Global narratives around decolonisation, even the #MeToo movement, have really pushed the thinking in many, many sectors to be more inclusive and intentional about approaches.” 

Another said: “It's not for us to empower [indigenous voices]. They actually already have it. We need to get out of the way”.

Recognising the agency of indigenous communities is critical

Tap into emotions that audiences want to feel

In our media audit, we found that optimistic, solutions-led ideas like blue carbon, reef restoration and nature-based solutions drove particularly high levels of engagement. It seems people want to read about these hope-inspiring concepts. On social, coastal blue carbon dominates 39% of ocean-climate conversations. And across both media and social, content about coral reefs and mangroves leads habitat restoration topics. 

After the newsy peak of the adoption of the High Seas Treaty, examples of compelling storytelling around the mechanics of ocean protection are few and far between. Overall, ocean protection makes up a very small part of the traditional media coverage (3%), relative to commentary on climate (48%), fishing (26%). 

If we are to reach 30% of ocean protected by 2030, it is imperative that we continue to make the case for protected areas in the media, however “unsexy” their implementation phase may be to audiences. 

So the question of how to spark intrigue in audiences in complex subjects may be critical to success.

“I think we need to not lean so much on narratives around enforcement” urged one interviewee. 

Another: “I think that where the community has really failed is on the storytelling around MPAs. And even on the visuals. What about the species and the people that rely on them, or the biodiversity that's there? How do we tell the story like: there's canyons, there's mountains, there's planes, there's jungles. And so I think that where we are failing is just talking about ‘X number of miles are protected’, and we're not telling stories.”

But it seems that emotions that people want to feel also include outrage. One journalist told us: “people enjoy feeling outraged when there's a perception of greenwashing.” So, for powerful actors on the global stage – governments, corporates, large NGOs – stories about greenwashing are tempting for journalists, tantalising for audiences and toxic for reputations. 

As ever, the case for large organisations to demonstrate transparency and authenticity is clear. 

This post was originally written by me for Greenhouse Communications. We collaborated with experts at Comms Inc as well.