'/%3E%3C/svg%3E){kind=small}
CLIMATE CHANGE EMOTIONS
How do we feel about climate change?
It is natural to feel moved by climate change.
We explored how people experience climate change — what they feel, how their bodies and brains respond, and what matters when they make decisions.
BEHIND EVERY EMOTION IS A STORY
Anxiety.
Anger.
Hope.
Understanding how emotions influence our thoughts, reasoning and decisions may help us adapt to and cope with the climate crisis.
FROM CONVERSATIONS TO BRAIN IMAGING
The project in numbers
Four numbers that tell a story about people’s experiences and the tools we use to study them.
WHAT THE RESEARCH TELLS US
Emotions do not simply switch behaviours on or off.
The story is more complex.
We wanted to understand people’s experiences better and explore what the data could tell us about them.
More than anxiety
Climate change evokes a wide range of emotions. Depending on the context and what your emotions relate to, you may feel sadness, anger, guilt, overwhelm, hope or joy — and much more.
Good measurement comes first
We developed the ICE questionnaire and the ECCS story database. These tools allow researchers to measure different climate emotions and study them under controlled conditions.
Emotions and action
In our studies, briefly inducing emotions did not change the climate actions we measured. This does not mean that emotions do not matter — it shows the limits of a specific intervention.
SIX RESEARCH STAGES
One topic. Many perspectives.
We combined interviews, questionnaires, experiments and neuroimaging to explore emotions from different perspectives.
01
Interviews
In-depth interviews in Poland and Norway helped describe how people experience emotions related to climate change.
02
Evoking emotions
We validated 180 short stories that evoke anger, anxiety, compassion, guilt and hope related to climate change.
03
Questionnaire
Validation studies in Poland, Norway and Ireland helped us develop a reliable tool for measuring eight climate emotions.
04
Behavioural experiment
In a behavioural experiment, we tested whether induced emotions translated into climate action.
05
Neuroimaging
Using fMRI, we studied responses to climate stories and decision-making. We made the CLIMATEBRAIN dataset available to other researchers.
06
Feelings in the body
The emBODY study showed where people mark bodily sensations associated with emotions and concepts, including climate change.
EXPLORE YOUR OWN EMOTIONS
How do you feel
about climate change?
The Inventory of Climate Emotions (ICE) helps you explore eight dimensions of emotional responses to climate change.
This tool helps you explore climate emotions; it is not a clinical diagnosis.
THE EIGHT DIMENSIONS OF ICE
Anger · Contempt
Enthusiasm · Powerlessness
Guilt · Isolation
Anxiety · Sorrow
Different emotions can exist alongside one another. No single response captures the whole experience.
KNOWLEDGE BEYOND THE LAB
Read. Watch. Listen.
Conversations, articles and resources for anyone curious about climate emotions — including educators and practitioners.
The featured materials below are in Polish.
READ · IN POLISH · APPROX. 8 MIN
Emotions in a time of crisis
Dominika Zaremba’s article in Charaktery explores climate depression and our response to the world’s suffering.
Article in Polish. Access to the full text is subject to the publisher’s terms.
WATCH · IN POLISH · APPROX. 10 MIN
Emotions and global warming
A short film about how we study climate emotions and their relationship with action. In Polish.
LISTEN · IN POLISH · APPROX. 51 MIN
Living with climate emotions
Julia E. Wahl talks to Dominika Zaremba about climate emotions on the Polish-language podcast Jak żyć? (How to Live?).
Would you like to use this knowledge in education or your work with people? Explore our public engagement report, available in Polish.
POLAND × NORWAY
Shared questions.
International collaboration.
Climate Change Emotions brought together environmental psychology, clinical psychology and neuroscience. We studied emotional responses to climate change and their links with well-being and action.
OPEN RESOURCES
The project has ended.
The knowledge remains available.
This website brings together findings, publications, tools and public engagement materials from the project and its follow-up work.
Climate Change Emotions · Archive of a completed research project.
Questions about the findings or using these resources? Contact the team →