TV meteorologists at MET Norway as climate communicators

Abstract

Climate change ought to be a natural part of the weather conversation on TV, radio and social media. Inspired by similar projects in other countries, the Norwegian Meteorological institute established a project in 2019 to develop their TV meteorologists as climate change communicators. The main objective in the project was to integrate research-based, localized climate content in the weather presentation, as to inform and engage the Norwegian public about climate change. Over a period of almost two years, the project has produced several climate stories on the national TV-news. The majority of the stories have also been shared through social media and through press releases to reach a wide range of audiences. In this paper, experiences from the project at the Norwegian Meteorological institute are shared along with recommendations for climate communication. We claim that TV meteorologists can have an important role in climate change communication, with a potential that is often not yet fully realized, and give our thoughts on how to further develop their role.