How can the science of storytelling drive action on climate change?
Categories: Public engagement, ADR UK Partnership, Climate & the environment
30 April 2026
What turns awareness into action? We’re surrounded by clear, data-driven evidence on climate change, from rising temperatures to emissions targets. But across sectors, a familiar pattern persists: knowing more doesn’t necessarily mean doing more. For organisations working with data, this raises an uncomfortable question. If better evidence isn’t enough to drive change, then what is?
In the latest episode of Connecting Society, co-host Shayda Kashef sits down with Daniel Jonusas, Project Lead at UCL’s Climate Action Unit, to explore a different approach that combines data-led insights with storytelling and psychology.
Knowing versus doing
As Daniel explains, though data is essential, it’s often only the starting point.
Understanding why climate change matters doesn’t automatically translate into knowing what to do next. This gap between information and action is where progress often stalls, whether at the level of individuals, organisations, or policy.
The UCL Climate Action Unit focuses on closing that gap. Rather than starting with data alone, their work begins with the real-world decisions people need to make. From there, they help build a clearer picture of what action actually looks like in practice.
How storytelling leads to action
This is where storytelling plays a different role than we often assume. Not as a way to simplify information, or make data more engaging, but as a tool for building agency.
Stories make action visible. They show the steps, the obstacles, and the outcomes involved in making change happen, helping people move from abstract awareness to a clearer sense of what to do next. As Daniel puts it, stories bring facts to life. They allow people to imagine themselves taking action and, crucially, to believe that they can.
In that sense, storytelling is what connects awareness to agency. Awareness tells us why something matters, but stories help answer the harder question: how to do something about it. Without that sense of “how”, even the most compelling evidence can fall short.
For ADR UK, this speaks directly to a wider challenge of ensuring that administrative data research both describes problems and helps shape solutions that people can be a part of.
Through what they term “action stories” and “action possibilities”, the Climate Action Unit works with organisations and communities to map out practical, achievable steps to help people move from intention to implementation.
Rethinking the research process
Traditionally, research starts with data and a question, and produces findings with the hope they will inform decisions.
The Climate Action Unit flips that model. Instead of starting with the data, they start with the decision: what does someone need to do? From there, they work backwards to identify what information would make that action possible.
A role for data, and for all of us
None of this diminishes the importance of data. If anything, it sharpens it; data remains essential for understanding the scale and shape of challenges like climate change.
What matters is how that data is translated into action through stories, through systems, and through the everyday decisions made by organisations and individuals alike. Action doesn’t just come from the top down – it also spreads through what people can see, imagine, and do within their own contexts, especially in the places they work.
Daniel highlights that action can be contagious. When people see what’s possible, it opens the door for others to act too.
