At one time, Nelson Mandela said, "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." His statement truly makes sense, with respect to the efficiency in communication of climate change as a major public concern, that is to say; communication of the climate crisis is most effective in the mother tongue of the target audience.

For instance, Uganda has English as her official language and over 56 tribal groups, each with its native language. Growing up, the native language is the first language of the majority of the children in the country and therefore most people are highly proficient in it.

The terms used in climate advocacy such as 'climate change', 'global warming', cannot easily identify with the average person in the official language ( even to those with a fairly good proficiency level) and are even more challenging to break down in the local languages. This is because there's no native vocabulary that directly or closely translates to many terms commonly used during environmental awareness campaigns. This is a source of confusion and discourages engagement of local communities in climate action. 

Therefore, it does not make sense when activists reach out to the local communities using speeches and cards written in English, which the majority there are less proficient in (compared to the native language) , even though it is the official language. 

Considering the above, I find it necessary to customize an environmental awareness campaign for a particular local community through interpretation of environmental terminologies into clear words that can resonate with the regional public. For example, for a campaign in parts of the central region of Uganda where Luganda is the most common native language spoken, using Luganda when conveying information makes the people understand more easily which increases chances of moving them to positive climate action.

Reference

Communicating the Climate Crisis by Maria Virginia Olano

https://climate-xchange.org/communicating-the-climate-crisis/