Powerful narratives are increasingly seen as a key enabler to encourage societal transformation and break away from established values, norms and status quo. Which stories should we tell? The ones that emphasise the extent of the catastrophe in progress, in order to shift people’s priorities and facilitate action? Or the ones of hope, in order to give people means to deal with the catastrophe? We will present the arguments for both approaches and argue that we need both approaches is sequence. This session illustrates this two-parter solution on the example of motivating domestic energy retrofit. First, John Doggart will emphasis a huge problem and put forward arguments on how to tackle the lack of belief in the ongoing catastrophe and will share his thoughts on which narratives can overcome this barrier that is climate change, and the lack of belief that individual actions within one’s home can make a difference . Then, Yekatherina Bobrova will illustrate how to use and construct hopeful narratives with the example of using Home for the Common Future (HCF) framework to motivate energy retrofit among homeowners.