About the Climate Visuals library and how to use it
Introduction to Climate Visuals
Climate Visuals is the world’s only evidence-based and impact-focused climate photography resource. It hosts new research, an image library and global open calls.
All too often, climate change imagery is ineffective at driving change – it may be aesthetically pleasing and illustrative but not emotionally impactful.
Based on international social research, Climate Visuals, a project by Climate Outreach, has had a significant impact in catalysing a new - more diverse and more compelling - visual language for climate change. Major projects include Visualising Climate Change, Oocean Visuals, representing indigenous people in images, and promoting diversity in outdoor photography.
The Climate Visuals evidence base proves that imagery needs to embody people-centred narratives, local impacts and positive solutions, and must resonate with the identity and values of the viewer. We need to diversify who is behind the camera whilst considering the values and ethics of image production.
Since our launch in 2016, we have grown our library through curation, two global open calls, grants, commissions and partnerships. Climate Visuals’ library of impactful climate photography is trusted by over 8000 NGOs, educators, journalists and communicators across the world.Climate Visuals images were prominently displayed at COP27 in Egypt and COP26 in Glasgow, and are widely used by outlets such as the Guardian, NGOs large and small, and educators across the world.
You can browse the library without registering, however to access images, either by direct download or by following links to an image provider, you must be registered and logged in. Registration is free.
The Climate Visuals library
Since 2016, our collection has grown to host over 1,400 Creative Commons and Rights Managed images - all content that embodies our evidence-based 7 Climate Visuals principles.
These images are publically available to browse in the Climate Visuals library.
Registered users can browse and access content that is ‘rights ready’ for their profile and needs - searching in combination by keywords, country, theme, collections, date, licence type and source. Users can generate links directly to images for sharing to social media, and, with lightboxes, they can also save, download and collaborate on their image selections.
How to use the Climate Visuals library
Registering for the library
To access images, either by direct download or by following links to the image provider you must be registered and logged in. The level of access depends on a specific images' license and your registered user category.
Register for an account here - it’s free and takes just a few minutes.
On registering, users are required to specific which category they belong to:
- A third-party editorial media publication or platform
- A third-party charity/non-profit/NGO
- A third-party individual, educational or research organisation
- Any other third party for-profit commercial
- Where the usage is commercial by a user who would otherwise usually fall into categories a), b) or c)
These categories determine the access rights and visibility of content to the registered user.
Please contact us if your intended use does not fit into these categories and we can discuss further.
Licence types
Images in the Climate Visuals library can be divided into two categories:
- images with Creative Commons (CC) licences
- images with Rights Managed (RM) licences.
As the user, you must ensure that your use of images is compliant with an image's licence terms.
Creative Commons is a framework that provides a standardised way to grant copyright permissions, and free usage, within a structure of use restrictions and attribution requirements. Climate Visuals’ use of CC licences is in response to the urgent need for more accessible climate change imagery, with the intention of making impactful, diverse and verifiable climate change imagery available to NGOs, educators and editorial media, whilst ensuring photographers are equitably compensated for their work.
Some of the CC images, for example those in the Ocean Visuals and Visualizing Climate Change collections, are available for immediate, direct download for users registered in categories a), b) and c) as these use-cases are covered by the CC licences (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Climate Visuals distributes. Users in categories d) and e) will need to get in touch to arrange licences appropriate for their intended use as this would not be covered by the CC licences. Climate Visuals licensed the images in the Ocean Visuals and Visualizing Climate Change collection from contributing photographers, paying a $1000USD licence fee for each image. This arrangement ensures ethical and equitable compensation for photographers whilst making the images freely accessible for qualifying users.
Other CC images, where the licence is held by a third party, will be accompanied by an ‘Obtain the image’ button that will take the user to the image source.
Rights Managed (RM) refers to licences for use granted by the licence holder to a user within specific, predetermined requirements, for example the context of use, audience and publication size. These licences will most likely require a fee. The Climate Visuals library contains many RM images from third parties that reflect our evidence and principals. These function both as useful resources for image selection, but also as exemplary images for reference.
For all user categories, RM images are accompanied by an ‘Obtain the image’ button when accessed by logged in users. This button will direct the user to the third party who can arrange the appropriate licence for the intended image use. Climate Visuals does not receive a commission when users follow links to Rights Managed images.
There is more information on licensing and licensing requirements, here.
Photo credits and attribution
All photographs downloaded directly from Climate Visuals under Creative Commons licences must be credited in the format PHOTOGRAPHER NAME / CLIMATE VISUALS.
All other images must be credited as required by their individual license requirements.
Evidence and further resources
Climate Visuals’ evidence base builds upon our 7 core principles with country-specific evidence from our Ocean Visuals open call, research into Indigenous media presence and diversity in nature visuals, and further reports. All are available on the Climate Visuals evidence page.