Climate change needs a happier face—enough of this doom and gloom, fire and brimstone, dogs and cats living together hysteria.
To make that happen, the European Commission for Climate Action on Monday unveiled a communications campaign to highlight the ways that low-carbon habits can improve quality of life. The campaign is called “
Worldulike,” and it features the slogan: “A world you like. With a climate you like.”
“With this campaign we want to focus the debate on the solutions and find out what is holding us back from applying them,” said Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action,
in a press release.
In other words, the organization is rebranding climate change.
The campaign aims to help the European Union in its ambitious goal to cut greenhouse gases in member nations by 80 to 95 percent by 2050. The hope for the campaign is that showing people how a low-carbon lifestyle can save money and improve their well-being will be more effective in promoting change.
Here are two examples (from the press release):
“Stockholm's central rail station converts the body heat of commuters into heat for a nearby office building, reducing not only emissions but also the building's energy bill by 20-25 percent. In Denmark, the Gedved school in Horsens saves €30,000 a year on energy thanks to solar power. The money saved is spent on improving education.”
The campaign runs through 2013.
It could face at least one problem, though—the name. BBC environmental analyst Roger Harrabin
writes: “The campaign title ‘Worldulike’ will doubtless raise eyebrows. The name is uncomfortably reminiscent of the British baked potato restaurant chain Spudulike.”