Climate Monitor’s 2021 Year in Review
We look back at some of the most prominent trends from how climate groups and others used social media and digital ads over the past year
With 2022 just days away, we’d like to thank our readers for their continued support and readership over the past several months. Since May, we’ve been providing you every week with data and insights into how climate-action groups, polluters, and politicians have been deploying digital tactics and strategies to shift public opinion and move legislation. Now, with the new year right around the corner, we’d like to dedicate this issue to the trends we’ve been seeing all year. For our readers who want to see last week’s developments on social media and across digital ads, we’ve still got you covered - you can check those usual roundups on our Substack.
Next week we’ll look at the year-end online push to finally pass the Build Back Better Act, but other than that, we’ll see you in January!
The top digital ad spenders of 2021
Given the Meta data available to us, which runs from February 28 - December 11, we know that in that time period climate groups outspent polluters on Facebook and Instagram political ads in 2021. While there were a couple of weeks this year when polluters outspent climate groups, the latter outspent the former in every quarter for which we have data. Here’s a look at how that breaks down (and for more detailed Facebook data, check out the new data visualization from Cristian Sanchez at the Digital Climate Coalition):
*2021 Q4 data is missing the final weeks of 2021 since they haven’t happened yet
We have more comprehensive data from Google about how groups invested in political ads on its platforms, but we will disclaim that so far Google only discloses political ad spending data when the ads concern specific bills or politicians. That said, we identified 21 climate groups that spent $2.98 million and three polluters that spent just $10,100 on political ads on Google’s platforms in 2021.
So, to the best of our knowledge, climate groups overwhelmingly outspent polluters on Google political ads. However, the top 10 spenders account for 98 percent of the climate groups’ investments in these platforms, with the League of Conservation Voters alone accounting for 59 percent of it. Overall, here’s how much these 10 climate groups spent on Google and YouTube ads in 2021:
And finally, here’s the latest tally of the top spenders on Snapchat political ads among climate groups:
Climate groups focused on jobs, lower costs, climate action now
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
We found that the most consistent through-line among climate groups and progressives when talking about climate action in the first year of the Biden administration reflects his own preferred angle: talking about jobs, jobs, jobs. Groups including ACORE, Third Way, LCV, the NRDC Action Fund, Climate Power, Climate Reality, the American Clean Power Association, the Green New Deal Network, and many others all ran ads across the major platforms throughout the year highlighting how the Democratic agenda and climate action would generate good-paying, union jobs.
Bringing down energy costs
Many of those same climate groups also ran digital ad campaigns highlighting how climate action and investments in clean energy will also lower energy costs - often in the same ads that highlighted potential job growth. This YouTube ad from the League of Conservation Voters that ran in September is a prime example of how climate groups pushed this hand-in-glove messaging:
Climate change is here and we need to act now
From social media to digital ads, progressive groups and Democrats have been beating the drum all year about the extreme urgency of climate change. Science Moms has been running virtually the same campaign all year highlighting how climate change will impact our kids and how the science is clear, while groups like Climate Power and the Nature Conservancy have been using Facebook and Google ads to pressure Democratic members of Congress. At the same time, Democrats and other online activists have pointed to all the extreme weather events throughout the year to highlight how we’re practically out of time to act.
Elect Democrats to the Senate to reform filibuster, act on climate change
Of the Democratic candidates running for U.S. Senate that have run Facebook ads mentioning climate change, almost all of them advocate for reforming or abolishing the filibuster to take meaningful action. These include John Fetterman in Pennsylvania, Val Demings in Florida, and Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin.
Polluters and right-wing media focused on greenwashing, railing against taxes, threatening cost increases, and undermining arguments for climate action
Greenwashing
Fossil fuel companies and trade groups like BP, BASF, Coca-Cola, Shell, and the American Chemistry Council all ran Facebook ads this year highlighting how they support clean energy and sustainability efforts. At the same time, some of those companies, along with the American Petroleum Institute, also ran sizable campaigns arguing that plastic, fossil fuels, and other pollutants are actually quite clean or even necessary for a clean energy future.
Taxes and regulations threaten jobs, low costs, and the economy
ExxonMobil, API, and the American Chemistry Council spent millions of dollars on Facebook ads over the past year pushing the argument that any taxes raised or regulations enacted will cost jobs, hurt the economy, endanger national security, and raise costs on consumers. While their spending on these campaigns fluctuated month-to-month, the messaging they deployed changed very little throughout the year.
Democrats are lying about climate change to line their own pockets
One massive advantage that fossil fuel companies and their allies in government have over Democrats and pro-climate action groups is a sprawling multimedia propaganda network, especially when it comes to moving public opinion online. One of the persistent narratives that online right-wing pundits invoke in arguing against climate action (and there are several) is the idea that Democrats are lying or heavily exaggerating about climate change to benefit themselves and leave everyone else to suffer.
For example, they circulated a completely fabricated story about Nancy Pelosi buying a home in Florida, criticized global leaders for flying and driving to events focused on climate change, criticized Biden for dismissing hecklers in storm-ravaged New Jersey, and criticized Energy Sec. Jennifer Granholm for promoting electric vehicle adoption after a gas shortage scare in May - and even RT got in on that last one.
Climate change is really about control
Similarly, in pushing the narrative that Democrats and climate activists are trying to use honeyed words to take advantage of hard-working Americans, some right-wing pundits push the dangerous argument that the urgency Democrats express is empty because “it’s actually NOT about climate change, it’s about control.” Dan Crenshaw, Dinesh D’Souza, Candace Owens, and Glenn Beck have all pushed this idea throughout 2021.
Climate change is just weather
In order to support the idea that Democrats are lying about climate change, right-wing pundits often offer misleading evidence that reinforces climate skepticism, which often takes the form of “Climate change is just weather, and we’ve always had weather.” One of the prime examples of this idea came from Franklin Graham during this year’s G20, when he cynically argued - in one of the highest-performing Facebook posts mentioning climate change all year - that “If it’s wetter than normal, it’s climate change. If it’s dryer than normal, climate change. Climate change is nothing new—the Bible records it over 4,000 years ago.”
That’s it for Climate Monitor this week. As always, head 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 nick@fwiwmedia.com.