Climate identities across the life-course and the role of oral testimony in exploring drivers of influence: Lessons from older adults in the Netherlands

Public understandings of climate change are shaped not only by knowledge and risk perception but also lived experiences and memory. This is an area of climate science that remains under-researched. This study examines how climate identities are formed through seasonal recollections, life-course experiences, and socio-economic conditions and mediate understandings of climate change. Semi-structured, oral history-focused interviews (n=20) were conducted with residents living in Breda and Tilburg (the Netherlands). The findings highlight the role of seasonal recollections in creating intergenerational climate memories that provide intuitive benchmarks such as frosts, snow cover, and flowering times for assessing change. Occupation, such as experience within the agricultural sector foster strong attachment to seasonal rhythms, while improvements in housing conditions such as central heating and insulation enabled detachment from direct weather exposure through controlled indoor environments. Together, socio-economic conditions and seasonal experiences illustrate how climate identities are socially developed in contemporary context. Conceptually, the paper shows that climate identities help to bridge local lived experience and global climate change understandings. Insights highlight the value of oral histories for theorizing climate perception and suggest new directions for climate communication and adaptation policy.