Imagining Climate Futures

Imagining Climate Futures is a research project that helps young people imagine positive and achievable climate futures. While climate change is often presented through dystopian narratives, this project aims to transform imagination into motivation. Hopeful future visions are essential to inspire people to engage in climate transition. Therefore, the project develops a Toolkit that encourages engagement and concrete actions toward climate transition.

What is the background of the project? 

According to UNESCO, the ability to imagine a hopeful future is an essential skill for the 21st century. Young people often experience climate change as an abstract and overwhelming issue due to a lack of imaginations and experiences that demonstrate what a sustainable future could look like. A more positive outlook on the future supports more environmentally friendly behaviour, therefore visualising the future is key to motivating people to actively shape that future.

Project approach 

Using participatory methods, the project aims to strengthen Futures Literacy, agency, and intergenerational collaboration while generating positive and actionable future visions. Through a co-design approach involving young people aged 12–18, participants are actively engaged in developing and testing methods that enhance climate imagination. Through workshops in The Hague and Leeuwarden, participants create their own future scenarios and visual stories about a sustainable future. Within this research project, the combination of interventions used in these workshops will be further developed and systematically evaluated, with the goal of creating a public Toolkit that stimulates and strengthens climate imagination.

Project partners 

This project is carried out in collaboration with Beeld(ver)vormers, Picture Bridge Foundation, and SPACE – Explorers of the Continuous Present.