Professional Engagement With Climate Change Among Five Communities of Practice in Virginia, USA: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT Municipalities across the United States and the world face profound climate adaptation and mitigation challenges. To assess current engagement and future potential of various professional communities to communicate about and contribute to such efforts, we conducted 56 in‐depth interviews with members of five communities of practice (elected officials, environmental advocates, emergency management planners, firefighters, and regional planning officials)—sampled from Virginia's six climatic regions. We selected these communities of practice for their potential to partner with Virginia's public universities in communicating climate change risk information to hard‐to‐reach members of their city, county, or region. Interviews focused on participants’ views about how climate change was affecting their jobs, if at all, how they were responding and/or would like to respond, and their perceived responsibility for communicating climate change to the public. We conclude that firefighters, and to a lesser degree, emergency management planners, are particularly well suited as strategic climate communication partners.