There's a maddening trip-wire you can easily fall over with climate communications.

We spend so much time trying to get people to grasp the enormity of how serious the problem is —because many people still need to hear that. But I think we overlook one of the biggest challenges in climate communications today.

Getting people to believe it's not too late.

Why "it's too late" thinking is poisonous

Often I come across people who are apathetic about climate change, not because they don't think it's serious, but the opposite. They think it's so serious and overwhelming as to be completely insurmountable. They think that 'it's too late'.

So what do they do? Nothing.

Because they think it's too late, they are not motivated to act. Even worse, their fatalism feels contagious and deflating to anyone who talks to them about it.

Finding the antidote: 3 tips to try

I've been working in climate communications for seven years and writing and talking about it for a lot longer, but I'm still just figuring this out. I don't have a sure-fire blueprint I'm afraid.

But I do have some tips and suggestions based on what I've found effective so far:

• Talk about how interesting the transition is. The best conversations I've had about climate issues have been centred not on the problem of climate change itself but how the economy is changing in response.

• Visualise the future in positive ways. Don't let images of the worst hellish scenarios be the only ones vivid enough to picture in the mind's eye. To believe a better future is possible and be motivated to work towards it, we need to be able to imagine it.

• Highlight what other people are doing and make it aspirational. One of the biggest drivers of 'it's too late' fatalism is the myth that 'nothing is being done'. Bust that by showing what people are doing, and tap into FOMO and a sense of social momentum.

What would you add?