More stringent policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is required by countries across the world. Yet, whilst citizens often perceive that the responsibility of acting on climate change should lie at the state actor level, governments are sensitive to introducing radical change in fear of being punished in elections; Pidgeon (2010) identifies this as a major ‘governance trap’ that is preventing effective action on climate change. Given climate change is often considered a ‘psychologically distant’ concept (Spence et al 2012), focusing instead upon the more immediate and definitive co-benefits (e.g. improving air quality, enhancing energy security) that are often associated with climate policy might offer an effective political strategy for increasing levels of public acceptance. Therefore, this paper uses a series of experimental studies that explore whether (and when) framing policy that reduces greenhouse emissions in terms of its non-climate benefits is likely to lead to greater levels of public acceptance, compared to the use of climate change frames. First, it demonstrates that emphasising the co-benefits that are associated with climate policy (e.g. public health improvements from reduced car use, local economic benefits from renewable energy developments) can significantly enhance levels of policy acceptance. This was particularly true for individuals who were sceptical about the existence of anthropogenic climate change. Second, this paper identifies a number of factors that can influence the effectiveness of co-benefit frames in increasing acceptance of climate policy (compared to climate change frames). As an example, ‘perceived frame relevance’ (e.g. whether a policy to reduce speed limits was perceived as more relevant to climate change or public health) is shown to be an important determinant of a frame’s relationship with public acceptance. Therefore this paper argues that giving greater consideration to co-benefits when designing and communicating policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can lead to greater levels of public acceptability.