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Talking about climate protection with a solution-oriented approach – The K3 Prize celebration

Three categories, eight award-winning projects and numerous guests – on Thursday, the K3 Prize for Climate Communication was presented at the Museum für Kommunikation in Frankfurt. We offer our warmest congratulations – and share a few impressions from the awards ceremony.

Three categories, eight award-winning projects and numerous guests – on Thursday, the K3 Prize for Climate Communication was presented at the Museum für Kommunikation in Frankfurt. We offer our warmest congratulations – and share a few impressions from the awards ceremony.

Dr Helmut Gold, Director of the Museum für Kommunikation in Frankfurt, welcomed the guests and award recipients. The museum is currently hosting the exhibition "Klima_X" until 27 August 2023, which explores how we can overcome our inaction on climate issues. From September, the exhibition will be on show at the Berlin communications museum.

Blogger and podcaster Patrick Breitenbach (2045 by Design or by Disaster) hosted the event.

Matthias Ammann is involved in the citizen science project "3-2-1-heiß!", which uses the help of local residents to identify heat islands in communities across the Swiss canton of Aargau. It was awarded 2nd place in the "Citizens' Prize of the KLIMA ARENA" category.

The project "3-2-1-heiß!" was quite literally brought to the streets by Catta, a science communication consultancy based in Aarau, founded by Pia Viviani (pictured).

The first prize in the climate journalism category went to the Netzwerk Klimajournalismus Österreich. The network drives climate reporting across the country and supports journalists in covering climate topics in their respective media outlets. Verena Mischitz and Katharina Kropshofer travelled to Frankfurt for the awards ceremony.

The second prize in the climate journalism category was awarded to the climate desk of the journalism platform CORRECTIV, which investigates pressing questions around the climate crisis, shares knowledge and builds networks. CORRECTIV climate reporter Gesa Steeger accepted the award.

The "packsdrauf" solar parties received the first Citizens' Prize of the KLIMA ARENA (Klimastiftung für Bürger). Hundreds of these neighbourhood parties have already taken place across Germany, encouraging people to get involved with solar energy, reported Caroline Kray (left) and Susanne Jung from the Solarenergie-Förderverein Deutschland e.V. (SFV). The SFV initiated the project.

The project team of "3-2-1-heiss!" (Pia Viviani, Clémence Rüegsegger, Matthias Amann and Norbert Kräuchi, from left) with Bernd Welz from the KLIMA ARENA/Klima-Stiftung für Bürger.

A further second prize in the Citizens' Prize category went to another Swiss project tackling surface sealing and overheated cities: as Asphaltknackerinnen, Bettina Walch and Isabella Sedivy (from left) want to break up concrete surfaces – and also break down preconceptions.

The second prize in the category went to the "Plant a SEEED" project. Through an accompanying programme at five concerts by the band SEEED, they made sustainability topics tangible for concert-goers. Pauline Schäch and Rosa Hoelger from "The Changency" aim to demonstrate that music and sustainability can complement each other perfectly.

The "Mother Earth Phone" received a special mention. Anyone who picks up the receiver of the black telephone is connected directly to our planet, which can answer questions and offer advice via artificial intelligence (AI). Falko Saalfeld is one of the project's developers.

The K3 Prize recipients represent tens of thousands of people in Germany, Austria and Switzerland who want to get society moving on climate action. In everyday life, this can be challenging and frustrating – but fresh ideas can also spark real waves of motivation.

An article introducing the award-winning projects in more detail can be found here.

Photos: Stefanie Kösling

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The K3 Prize recipients represent tens of thousands of people in Germany, Austria and Switzerland who want to get society moving on climate action. In everyday life, this can be challenging and frustrating – but fresh ideas can also spark real waves of motivation.

The "Klimaausreden" project received the first prize of the Eunice Foote Award for Climate Communication. The project tackles the common mechanisms we so often use to avoid taking greater action on climate protection. Psychologist Thomas Brudermann analyses the thought patterns behind these excuses, while forest scientist Annechien Hoeben has illustrated them graphically.

Laudatory speaker and jury member Maria Furtwängler said she felt inspired and encouraged by the award-winning projects. In her speech, she spoke about the significant influence of the media on our perception of reality and praised the K3 Prize recipients: "The projects all show that it's possible to talk about climate protection in a solution-oriented way." She also emphasised that discussions about the climate crisis must include conversations about morality. Only in this way, she argued, could our society develop a shared vision of a good life and a world worth living in. She closed her speech with her greatest wish for climate communicators: "Let's be political and change the framework conditions."