Issue 19
COP edition – Highlights from new global research.
We are excited to share what is one of our biggest analytical projects to date – a 23 country study on climate messaging. We believe this work to be one of the most comprehensive message tests conducted in climate, covering countries across all five continents with a sample size of 58,000 respondents. We examined citizen attitudes and behaviors, tested movability with different messages using RCTs, and also tested multiple framings for 18 different policy territories.
Below you will see a link to the report as well as a signup form to a webinar we will host with Yale Center on Climate Change Communications to review the findings.
In the spirit of this newsletter, here are a few of the findings we discovered and thought, “well, that’s interesting:”
- The world really does want climate action, urgently.
77% of respondents said that the government should “do whatever it takes” to address the issue, while only 10% of people disagreed. - The U.S. stands out as an anomaly, in many ways. Americans have both the lowest support for climate policy in the G20 and the highest political polarization (4 times the average). Of the 82 political parties we examined, supporters of the Republican party show the second lowest support, and the lowest among “major parties” (e.g., those with a significant share of the popular vote). But polarization isn’t a global phenomenon – yet. (We recommend messaging that keeps it that way.)
- Policies vary significantly in terms of support – but the right messaging can make all the difference. The great news is that there are winning arguments, by wide margins, for emissions caps and clean energy standards.
- Fighting climate to “create jobs” and “increase prosperity” had very low resonance. The main benefit of fighting climate change is to protect the planet for our kids and the next generation.
- “Limitation” is a losing frame. When we say the word ban, mandate, or phase out, we lose 9 to as much as 20 points of support. The one exception: limiting pollution. Our messaging should be about banning pollution, not household products.
- One message moved the world – a lot. The message that we should tackle climate as an urgent issue for the sake of the next generation was the leading message in every segment and every country by a significant margin. There is a significant opportunity to communicate climate in the global south. In many countries in Africa, Asia, and South America, we saw lifts in the high teens (4% is typical in America).
Please download the full report here and share it with your community.
To learn more about the study and findings, please sign up for our webinar with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communications on January 8th, 2024.
Many thanks to our partners at Yale, the Global Strategic Communications Council, and Zero Ideas for their strategic partnership on this report.
Article by John Marshall and Jessica Lu
John Marshall is the founder and CEO of Potential Energy. John advises global leaders on strategies to effectively communicate about climate solutions, and is a frequent industry commentator and speaker. John’s innovative approach to building public support for climate action is informed by his 30+ years of experience advising the leaders of Fortune 500 companies on branding and marketing.
Jessica Lu is Associate Director of Strategy and Analytics and leads Potential Energy’s Insights Lab. She leads teams that execute hundreds of message tests and focus groups and perform in-market measurement analytics to unearth what motivates humans to care about climate change. Jessica graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering.
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