20.05.2026 | First sustainability study completed in Hamburg
Climate change is progressing inexorably - but our society is less and less willing to fight for consistent change. Can entertainment media persuade us to believe in this change again? And how does a message need to be packaged in order to be successful in the long term? Communication scientist Dr Daniel Possler investigated these questions as part of a research grant awarded last year by MOIN Film Fund together with PlanetNarratives. You can find out more about the working process and the results here.
"A gentle rustling of the wind in the trees, hardly any street noise - sometimes I almost forgot that I was in the middle of St. Pauli, even with the window open," says Dr Daniel Possler and laughs. The communication scientist from Hanover spent a month living in Hamburg's Green Bunker high above the rooftops of the city. More than suitable accommodation for the focus of his studies: together with his colleague Dr Anna Freytag, Possler has been researching how good environmental communication can succeed at the Institute for Journalism and Communication Research (IJK) at the University of Music, Drama and Media for several years - and what role entertainment media play in this. Her most recent research work focusses on climate visions.
"We had seen in our and other studies that messages in entertainment media usually have no long-term effect on viewers. People may be motivated to act more sustainably in the short term, but the effect fizzles out after a short time. So we asked ourselves how a message in a film needs to be designed in order to influence us in the long term. That's how we came up with the concept of climate visions," says the 37-year-old. In other words, visions of an attractive and sustainable future.
"We believe that climate visions in films are particularly good at motivating sustainable behaviour because they tie in with a current social trend. In his book 'Loss', sociologist Andreas Reckwitz talks about how we have lost faith in the narrative of progress. In other words, the belief that the future will be better than the present," says Possler. A thesis that he agrees with. And why should we change anything now if we think that everything will only get worse in the future anyway? Climate visions could be a building block to whet our appetite for a sustainable tomorrow and motivate people to change.
The duo sought support for their work in the USA from fellow scientists Prof Dr Chris Skurka and Assistant Prof Dr Cassandra Troy. And just as the four researchers had decided to continue their studies together, MOIN Film Fund and PlanetNarratives published a call for applications for a research grant: a perfect match, as some of the groundwork had already been done. "Climate change requires fundamental societal change, but society is exhausted by negative and disruptive narratives. That's why this research grant is so important for the industry to find answers to the extent to which we can use new narratives to motivate environmentally friendly behaviour," says Film Commissioner Christiane Scholz, who has been promoting the topic of sustainability at MOIN Film Fund for over ten years.
In September 2025, Daniel Possler and his team conducted an empirical study with almost 1,000 online participants as part of the scholarship. During this time, Possler lived in the Green Bunker in Hamburg and, as head of the project, was in constant dialogue with his academic colleagues, PlanetNarratives and MOIN.
During the study, the participants were shown various excerpts from Damon Gameau's Documentary "2040", which addresses the issue of climate change, presents possible solutions and outlines the resulting future scenarios. In the study, one group was shown a clip that only explains the problem of climate change. For the second group, a solution clip was added to the problem clip, showing how solar energy is used effectively in a decentralised solar network in Bangladesh. Finally, a vision clip was added to the problem and solution clip for the third group: a leap into the future in which every household has a large solar energy system and is part of a decentralised power grid, which would lead to environmental protection, but also to greater prosperity and independence. A utopia that whets the appetite for tomorrow and also has an entertainment effect.
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This was followed by a short catalogue of questions: Possler's team wanted to know, for example, how inspiring and entertaining the respective clip was, whether they could imagine a green future - and how willing they would be to become active in environmental protection themselves now. The special thing: Two weeks later, all participants were asked again whether they had become more sustainable in their actions and/or still had green plans for the future.
PlanetNarratives supports filmmakers in developing stories that enable social transformation. The focus is on the question of how narratives can contribute to strengthening democracy and making it possible to shape the future. The initiative, founded by media lawyer Nicole Zabel-Wasmuth and Directors Lars Jessen, worked with Possler to prepare the results and presented them for the first time at the Filmfest Hamburg 2025.
The solution and vision clips beat the pure problem clip for almost all questions. The solution and vision clips were more inspiring, triggered more hope and created a better idea of a sustainable future. The clips were also more entertaining than the pure problem presentation. In the short term, the motivation to protect the environment was also higher in both groups. The problem: in the survey two weeks later, there was hardly anything left of this positive effect. Now the motivation to act more environmentally consciously in future was almost the same for all three groups of participants.
"One possible solution could be follow-up measures," Possler surmises. For example, viewers could receive further information or an invitation to join a community directly after watching the content. In addition, viewers could be offered the opportunity to easily apply for funding for environmental protection in their own region. This way, the positive energy does not fizzle out, but is directly translated into action. "That's what Damon Gameau did with his film "2040"," reveals Daniel Possler.
One exciting question following the study is whether a climate vision is needed at all or whether it is enough to present a solution in films and series. "A look into the future, i.e. a vision, is of course much more difficult to realise on film than simply showing what a solution could look like in the here and now," says Daniel Possler. But more data is needed here in order to later enter into dialogue with filmmakers and especially Script Writers and provide very practical recommendations for the writing process.
A follow-up study is already being planned for 2026. However, this will initially be strongly based on the first study: "In science, it's like in sport: a single performance is not enough; only when we can repeatedly show the same thing do the results become more robust. So we first have to see whether we can achieve the same results with other clips as in the first study," says Possler.
With this in mind: On your marks, get set, go!
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