NY Climate advocates want the fossil fuel industry to “STFU”
A roundup of the climate conversation across social media this week
Welcome to Climate Monitor, a weekly, data-driven report on the digital strategies polluters and pro-Climate groups are using to shift public opinion and move legislation. Here’s what we found:
Toplines:
A new campaign from Win Climate in New York called “STFU!” is trying to build support for the NY HEAT Act via digital creators and vertical video ads
In Texas, more digital ad dollars flowed to support the state’s clean energy industry against punitive actions by the state legislature
Posts about France’s move to ban short-haul domestic flights received lots of organic engagement on social media last week
A programming note: There will be no Climate Monitor next Thursday - we’ll be back in your inboxes on June 14th!
Digital Advertising Roundup
Facebook + Instagram 👍
For starters, here were the top 25 climate and energy-related advertisers on Facebook and Instagram last week:
One noteworthy new Facebook ad campaign last week came from E2 / Environmental Entrepreneurs, which is aggressively promoting local clean energy projects spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act - and reminding lawmakers to not cut those projects as part of a debt limit deal. View the group’s ads and targeting information here >>
The fight over the New York HEAT Act is well, heating up… and one group launched a new campaign targeted at young voters called “STFU!” Climate advocacy group Win Climate is running the Shut The Fossils Up campaign using digital creators + vertical video on Instagram to engage audiences of all ages in support of the state-level legislation.
Another campaign, Better Buildings New York, is also running lots of new ads in support of the NY Heat Act.
Elsewhere on the clean energy front, the American Clean Power Association is running ads targeting New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania with messages in support of offshore wind development.
…and last but not least, we continue to see major climate-related spending in Texas. Last week, American Energy Action ran ads in support of wind and solar in the Lone Star State, as did a group called Texas for Economic Liberty.
Google & YouTube 🎞️
Climate or energy advertisers archived by Google last week included: League of Conservation Voters Education Fund ($1,600), Maine Affordable Energy ($1,500), and Evergreen Collaborative ($1,200)
Snapchat 🤳
On Snapchat, the Wilderness Society Action Fund launched new video ads aimed at protecting public lands. The group spent around $1,000 targeting users 18+ nationwide.
What’s Trending on Social Media
How are climate and energy issues being discussed by Americans on social media? Every week, we conduct a robust keyword search using CrowdTangle for general terms like “climate change,” “global warming,” “fossil fuels,” and over 40 more specific topics (like “electric vehicles,” “gas stoves” and “pipelines”). Here were the 15 top-performing public posts (by # of interactions) related to climate and energy on Facebook last week:
Last week, over 12,300 public Facebook posts mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 566,000 interactions.
The most-engaged post about climate or energy issues came from Earthjustice, which shared a blog post about the Supreme Court Sackett case undermining the Clean Water Act. That post was shared over 2,100 times, and the pro-climate group also received large amounts of engagement on two other posts last week.
Other top-performing posts came from Joe Biden about Sackett and general clean energy investments (like this one and this one), as well as this cross-posted photo from Moms Clean Air Force. Among right-wing posts, this vertical video post attacking NY Gov. Kathy Hochul’s gas restrictions from Citizens Against Government Waste received high levels of engagement.
Meanwhile, here were the top-performing feed posts (excluding Reels and Stories) related to climate and energy on Instagram last week:
Last week, over 5,700 public Instagram feed posts mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 4.5 million interactions. Most of the top-performing posts were pro-climate or favorable to climate action.
This post from @instantbollywood about New York City “sinking” due to climate change received over 150,000 interactions, and this @BBCNews story about France banning short haul flights to cut emissions also performed well. Another post about short-haul flight bans from @simplepolitics also received moderate engagement.
…and this post from @globalwealthprotection was the top-performing climate skeptic post last week, arguing that climate advocates are “crying wolf” with dire warnings just to raise taxes. It received 37,000 likes.
Lastly, one of the most liked and viewed TikToks about climate and energy last week came from @the_simulator, which shared a video envisioning the potential to “cover just 1 percent of the Sahara Desert with solar panels.” It has received 3.1 million views and 200k likes in a few days.
Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Weekly Reading
Want to go deeper? Here’s a quick roundup of news from the past week at the intersection of climate, digital strategy, and advocacy.
P.S. Are you signed up for Climate Nexus’ daily newsletter, Hot News? It’s a one-stop shop for everything you need to know in the climate and environmental policy space. Subscribe here>>
LinkedIn “censors” presidential candidate’s anti-Climate post (NY Post, 5/25)
Majority of Californians fear worsening weather swings due to climate change, poll finds (LA Times, 6/1)
Exxon, Chevron shareholders soundly reject climate-related petitions (Reuters, 5/31)
That’s it for this week! If you enjoyed reading this week’s issue, feel free to forward it to a friend or colleague. Climate Monitor is a product of the Digital Climate Coalition + FWIW Media. Tips/comments/questions? Email kyle@fwiwmedia.com