Climate Monitor: June 3rd
A look at Dominion Energy’s front-group spending in VA primaries next week, climate groups celebrate court wins, and more
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 last week: The Years Project
Top ad spenders: NRDC, Exxon Mobil, American Petroleum Institute
Below are the top 25 spenders on climate-related Facebook + Instagram ads last week.
FWIW, last week was the first since we’ve been tracking that a pro-climate group (NRDC) outspent big oil on Facebook & Instagram. For a deeper dive into the ads themselves + spending on other platforms, click below to read more.
...and here is YTD spending on climate & energy-related Snapchat advertising:
Top-performing social media posts: Celebrating victories against Big Oil
This past week, the top climate and energy-related posts on Facebook and Instagram were related to major victories against big oil. While Rachel Maddow had the most interactions out of all climate posts on Facebook, Sunrise Movement, Extinction Rebellion, and 350.org had the most engaging posts among advocacy organizations.
A trend we’re noticing: climate groups’ posts on Instagram regularly receive more interactions than those on Facebook. 🤔
Here are the top 10 posts from climate and polluter groups on Facebook last week and the # of interactions each post received:
Here are the top 10 posts from climate and polluter groups on Instagram last week and the # of interactions each post received:
Polluters, climate advocates clash ahead of next week's Virginia primaries
On Tuesday, June 8th, Democrats in Virginia will head to the polls to select their nominees for Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General, in addition to key House of Delegate races across the Commonwealth.
While Virginians’ newsfeeds are already filled with advertising from the candidates themselves, an outside group tied to Dominion Energy has quietly begun spending heavily online to endorse or oppose their chosen candidates and influence voters.
Greta, Kamala, and the rising tide of climate misinformation
According to triplecheck, approximately 6 million people were exposed to misinformation about climate change this week (5/24 to 5/31). A video of Greta Thunberg from the UN Climate Action Summit in September 2019 and a January 2021 video of Sky News host Alan Jones attacking her as being “uninformed, disinformed, [and illiterate]” resurfaced and reached more than 5 million human users on Twitter and 26,000 likes on Facebook. Content attacking Vice President Harris for touting clean energy use by the military reached more than 2.2 million human users on Twitter. And a series of tweets blaming clean energy initiatives in California for rolling blackouts in the state by climate denier Michael Shellenberger reached more than 500,000 users.
Other relevant reads this week
That’s it for Climate Monitor this week. As always, log in to climatemonitor.substack.com to see these updates in real-time as we publish them throughout the week!
And if you have any comments or questions, feel free to drop us a line by shooting an email to ClimateMonitor@DCC.org