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A quick guide on how to talk to anyone about the climate crisis

Have you ever started talking to someone about climate change and watched their eyes glaze over? You’re not alone. It’s tough to talk about climate change, because the subject itself is huge and unwieldy, and because, often, people don’t want to hear about it! Here are a few tips we’ve picked up over the years to nudge you in the right direction when climate change comes up in conversation.

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Be careful of being overzealous or righteous

Rightly or wrongly, climate activists are often branded as holier-than-thou. Sometimes they are, but often, people simply are not ready to hear the message. When we know something, we find it hard to believe others don’t know what is obvious to us. Or that if they do, that they don’t feel and act the same way as we do. We get impatient with our peers, children or our other halves when they fail to see a point which seems so very clear to us. But as in a healthy relationship, we begin making progress when we cease trying to be right, and start trying to build understanding, starting with understanding the person with whom we are talking. Each person’s journey towards understanding cannot be rushed. When talking to others (and in approaching climate change ourselves), it is better to evoke some change at some point than to alienate someone by trying too hard to get them to act now. Therefore &#8211; begin with the end in mind.

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Create a genuinely safe space for people to educate themselves

The word educate comes from the latin ‘educere’, to bring forth or out. This means that, in the true sense of the word, whenever we are trying to teach anyone anything, all we are really doing is allowing them to see it for themselves. We all want a world where people and the planet are cared for, but people must find their own way towards it for it to truly permeate.

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Climate change is a bottomless topic with endless complexity and we should never assume that we understand everything about it or its solutions. We must remember that there was a time when we ourselves knew next to nothing about the climate, as well as the lengthy journey we still have to travel. Moreover, as the need for diverse voices to be heard in the global conversation only increases, sometimes the solution is simply to listen. From planting mini-forests based on ancient Shinto <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/the-miyawaki-method-a-better-way-to-build-forests/">‘sacred shrine forests’</a>, to learning from indigenous communities’ deep connection to the earth, relearning how to listen has never been more important.

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Engage feelings, not thoughts, by using stories

We need look no further than the most persuasive medium on the planet – advertising – to see the truth in this. Products are not sold to us by listing their benefits, but through appealing to underlying emotions of longing, lust and status. We must make similarly emotional appeals to positive values. Without an arsenal of scantily clad people or celebrities at your disposal, you can still do this by engaging people in stories. Tell stories about your personal journey to understanding the importance of our climate and taking action, rather than telling them why they should care. Stories are how we make sense of the world, find meaning, but also empathise and see ourselves in <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2022/01/05/the-power-of-storytelling-to-fight-the-climate-crisis/?sh=3d887dba5201">the shared story of our society</a>.

Provide them with a simple action or request

If, after everything, people are ready to act, then we had best provide them with something to act on! As behavioural science tells us, the way to get people to act is to remove ‘barriers to action’. These are things that affect people’s motivation, capacity or opportunity to act, but often the simplest way to do this is make it easy. As anyone who has ever engaged in therapy or self-improvement realises, when we allow issues to become too big, they seem impossible. Issues must be boiled down to their simplest elements, and we have to deal with each one as it comes up. Whether sending people a link for how to easily change to a <a href="https://www.switchcraft.co.uk/energy-suppliers/bulb-energy/">green energy supplier </a>or to sign up and <a href="https://ecologi.com/plan">plant a tree</a>, this first step to action could be the first in a lifelong path.
It all comes back to the same point; people will come around when they’re ready, and ‘whatever ideas are lying around’ will be picked up. Our job is to make sure the right ideas are there, and that we’re available to listen and provide guidance at any step of the way.
<a href="https://ecologi.com/plan">Join Ecologi today</a> to start supporting the world’s best climate projects.

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UK Voluntary Carbon Market Guide: Best Practices for Climate Action

The voluntary carbon market plays an important role in corporate climate strategies – but its effectiveness relies on buyers doing due diligence and rigorous quality assessment on each project, as well as placing the purchase of credits in the right place in the climate journey.
To ensure meaningful climate impact, businesses must develop a comprehensive carbon strategy and find ways to fund only high-quality credits in the voluntary carbon market – and this guide shows you how to do so with Ecologi.

<h2>Table of contents</h2>
<ul>
<li>When to buy carbon credits</li>
<li>Our new carbon projects assessment framework</li>
<li>Ecologi&#8217;s core due diligence principles</li>
<li>How Ecologi scores and ranks carbon credit projects</li>
<li>Questions to ask your carbon credit supplier</li>
<li>Take action in the voluntary carbon market</li>
</ul>

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<h2>When should businesses buy carbon credits in the voluntary market?</h2>
Businesses must not use credits in place of making direct, measurable reductions in their emissions. Instead, follow these steps to ensure you buy your carbon credits on the right step of your corporate climate action journey, and in the right way:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Measure your emissions first – to allow you to understand where your business’s emissions are coming from. 
</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Set science-based targets and work towards them – set ambitious targets aligned with the SBTi and compatible with the global 1.5ºC warming target.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Beyond value chain mitigation (BVCM) – design your BVCM portfolio to work alongside your decarbonisation plan and address your unabated emissions in each reporting year. Align it with SBTi guidance and the Oxford Principles. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Buy high-quality carbon credits – use this guide to ensure the carbon credits you buy meet rigorous quality standards. Remember, under the SBTi framework you’ll also need permanent carbon removal credits for neutralising your residual emissions when you reach your net-zero date.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Disclose and report transparently – publicly disclose information about your carbon credit purchases, and clearly communicate the limited role of carbon credits in your broader sustainability strategy.</li>
</ol>

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<h2>Ecologi&#8217;s carbon project assessment framework</h2>
In April 2025, we published a report summarising how we assess carbon credit projects against our rigorous proprietary rubric. A snapshot of what goes into our carbon credit project assessment is below, or you <a href="https://cms-assets.offset.earth/app/uploads/20250428124112/Ecologi_Whitepaper_A4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">download the full whitepaper here</a>.

<h2>Carbon project due diligence: Ecologi’s core principles</h2>
At Ecologi, we maintain general due diligence principles which we apply universally across the voluntary carbon market, to support our efforts to supply only high-quality carbon credits.
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">ICROA-endorsed standards only – we supply credits exclusively from carbon standards which are ICROA-endorsed.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Responsive to ICVCM decisions – we support the ICVCM’s two-tick approach to providing CCP-Approval to project methodologies, and we go further still, to assess individual projects on their merits and limitations as well.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Keep the carbon credit life cycle as short as possible – 75% of our credits in 2024 came directly from project developers and their nominated dispensaries (as opposed to intermediaries on the secondary market), maximising the proportion of purchase price which goes to the developer.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Locally-appropriate projects only – we take care to ensure that supported projects are being applied in appropriate geographies, where they can have the greatest impact.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Deep project-level scrutiny – our extensive assessment criteria are specific to each type of project, and we assess every project against these criteria, ensuring the project’s specifics have been taken into account.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Methodological consensus – we synthesise data we receive from our partners Sylvera, BeZero Carbon, Calyx Global and Renoster) with our own in-house analysis to uncover where there is consensus about project quality, and improve confidence.</li>
</ul>

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<h2>How to evaluate carbon credits: Ecologi&#8217;s scoring methodology</h2>
We designed a three-layer assessment process which takes into account the merits and limitations of the carbon standard used, the carbon credit methodology used, and of the individual project design.
The tables below summarise some of the data inputs we use at each stage.

<h3>Assessment level: Carbon Standard</h3>
Examples: Gold Standard, Verra, Puro Earth, Isometric, Plan Vivo.

<h3>Assessment level: Methodology (or ‘Protocol’)</h3>
Examples: GS TPDDTEC, VM0048, ACM0002.

<h3>Assessment level: Project</h3>
Examples: GS 10790, VCS 1571.

Criteria in the assessment are categorised as either quality criteria or risk criteria, and are segmented by our three pillars of impact: Climate, Nature and People. Based on how it meets each criterion, the project gains points for quality criteria, and loses points for excess risk – ultimately giving a risk-adjusted value out of 100 for each of these pillars.
Having gathered our risk-adjusted pillar scores, we use our own unique scoring formula which weights the risk-adjusted Climate score of the project equally with the combined risk-adjusted Nature and People scores. The formula then produces an ‘overall’ score (also out of 100) for the project. In order to be supplied by Ecologi, projects must meet a minimum overall score of 80, and must achieve no lower than 65 in any given risk-adjusted pillar score.

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<h2>Key questions to ask carbon credit suppliers</h2>
Selecting the right carbon credit provider is important to help guide you to make informed choices as part of your corporate sustainability strategy. Before purchasing carbon credits, businesses should ask:
<h3>Project quality </h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you assess/validate/underwrite project quality? If so, how?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do your projects get good ratings from the ratings agencies? If so, what ratings are they?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you source credits directly from project developers, or from the secondary market?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you monitor projects over time to ensure continued success, and how do you remedy it, if a project&#8217;s quality drops?</li>
</ul>
<h3>Due diligence</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you ensure you are supporting the right projects in the right locations?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you account for project permanence and mitigate risks?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">What makes your projects additional?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you assess the project&#8217;s impacts on climate, nature and people?</li>
</ul>
<h3>Positioning</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you contribute to the development of a high integrity voluntary carbon market?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you align your portfolios with the Oxford Principles? If so, how?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you reflect ICVCM guidance on carbon credit methodologies and technologies?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you build multi-year portfolios that align to mid- &amp; long-term SBTs?</li>
</ul>
As the voluntary carbon market evolves, corporate buyers have the power and the responsibility to demand high-impact credits to drive real climate progress. This means buyers have a responsibility to do due diligence before placing an order for carbon credits.

<h2>Take action in the voluntary carbon market</h2>
As a business committed to corporate climate action, understanding the voluntary carbon market is essential for making informed decisions about carbon credits. Our comprehensive whitepaper provides deeper insights into creating an effective sustainability strategy.
<a href="https://cms-assets.offset.earth/app/uploads/20250428124112/Ecologi_Whitepaper_A4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Download our full whitepaper</a> to learn how your business can navigate the voluntary carbon market with confidence.

<h2>Connect with one of our climate experts</h2>
Please complete our form to arrange a 30-minute discovery call to discuss your goals and get a tailored solution for your business.

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The Good News timeline

It’s not all bad. While there’s a lot of negative news about the climate, let’s not forget the good stuff. Find climate wins, reasons to be hopeful and plenty of positivity in our good news timeline.

How to talk about climate change

Be careful of being overzealous or righteous

Create a genuinely safe space for people to educate themselves

Be patient, resist judgement and listen

Engage feelings, not thoughts, by using stories

Provide them with a simple action or request

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UK Voluntary Carbon Market Guide: Best Practices for Corporate Climate Action

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