Climate Monitor: August 12th
Climate groups use Facebook ads to capitalize on grim IPCC report, and Third Way launches pro-clean energy Facebook ad campaign
Welcome to Climate Monitor, your weekly digest of the digital tactics and strategies that polluters and climate-action groups are deploying online to shift public opinion and move legislation. We’ve examined political ad spending on platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, and Google by over a dozen groups and corporations from the past week, as well as their activities on social media.
Here’s what we found:
Best performing Facebook post from DCC members: The Years Project
Top ad spenders: The Climate Pledge, Exxon, Potential Energy Coalition, API, and EDF
Spending on Facebook ads about conservation, clean energy, and climate change declined last week among climate groups and polluters alike. The League of Conservation Voters dropped their Facebook ad spending by over 60 percent from the previous week, even after they teamed up with Priorities USA on a campaign.
However, LCV did start running a new (albeit smaller) campaign promoting the Build Back Better Agenda - as they’re now calling the infrastructure package moving through Congress - that targets young men and older women in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio.
Spending on Facebook political ads by polluters also decreased from the previous week, in large part because ExxonMobil cut their spending on the platform by more than $100,000. The American Petroleum Institute’s Energy Citizens page, however, spent more on the platform, mostly on a Minnesota-focused campaign arguing against electric vehicle mandates. The ads, which mostly target men and older women in the state, argue that “We should prioritize Minnesota economic recovery and growth,” and that such mandates “could leave farmers stranded in the field.”
Overall, here are the top 25 spenders on climate and energy-related Facebook ads last week.
Social media roundup: Looking at the most-engaged climate + infrastructure posts
On Facebook in particular, The White House has been driving a significant portion of the online conversation around climate change in pushing for the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal.” However, a recent element of the Biden administration’s climate and clean energy policy - demanding that 50 percent of all new cars be powered by electric batteries - got a fair amount of hate-clicks for Fox News and The Western Journal.
Third Way joins online push for clean energy investments
Fresh off its six-figure online ad campaign to defeat Nina Turner in last week’s primary election in Ohio, the centrist think tank Third Way is now running Facebook ads touting “investments in clean energy technologies.” Launched earlier this week around the same time as the Senate finally advanced infrastructure packages that include provisions to combat climate change and proliferate clean energy, their new campaign lauds the work of Sens. John Hickenlooper, Joe Manchin, Mark Kelly, Martin Heinrich, and Ron Wyden.
Third Way has so far spent between $5,000 to $7,500 on this campaign, which mostly target adults and particularly women aged 25 - 44 in the senators’ respective states. The ads all point to a Third Way memo that argues that “the BID is a BIG Down Payment on Clean Energy.”
Grim IPCC report briefly biggest climate story online in the past month
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released their annual report on the state and possible futures of climate change on Monday. UN Secretary General António Guterres called the report “a code red for humanity,” a quote that made for eyeball-grabbing headlines. According to data from NewsWhip, articles about climate change and related topics got 888.5k interactions across Facebook and Twitter on Monday, representing the biggest spike in interactions on climate change stories in the past month.
While organic engagement on stories about the IPCC report may be quickly dwindling, climate groups are still trying to capitalize on it through Facebook ads. We’ve identified at least seven groups, including the Green New Deal Network, 350.org, the Environmental Defense Fund and EDF Action, Conservation Colorado, Honor the Earth, and NRDC, that started running ads about the report on Monday. We estimate that these groups have so far spent around $3k on Facebook ads using the IPCC report to call for action (and/or collect emails and donations).