Presidential candidates attack clean energy, climate advocacy on the campaign trail
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:
Candidates for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination have the eyes and ears of the media right now. And most of them are using that attention to spread skepticism of climate change and anti-environmental messaging. We took a look at some of their most common anti-climate talking points below.
The Wilderness Society is using new Facebook and Instagram ads to drum up support for their upcoming legal battles.
The anti-climate social media trolls (like Donald Trump Jr.) went after activist Greta Thunberg and others this week… but that didn’t slow her down at all.
Georgia Conservation Voters are running ads on Snapchat about the 2023 Farm Bill.
Digital Advertising Roundup
Facebook + Instagram 👍
For starters, here were the top 25 climate and energy-related advertisers on Facebook and Instagram last week:
One notable new campaign this week comes from The Wilderness Society, which has a longstanding history of fighting for public lands. They ran nationwide ads on Facebook and Instagram asking for support as they take several climate battles to court – including suing the highly contentious Willow Project, an oil development project that has the backing of the Biden Administration.
Multibillion-dollar corporation Panasonic is running a slew of ads across the nation on Facebook about their work to build a greener future and touting their new EV battery design. These ads also largely feature sports superstars Naomi Osaka and Michael Phelps.
And finally, a scammy new campaign: a Facebook page called Save Our Planet is running a ton of ads in states along the East Coast, letting people know that they can install solar panels with no upfront cost. The ads all lead back to a site called solarpanelquotes.org, and the group’s Facebook page shows an average review of 1 star…
Google & YouTube 🎞️
There were no new or noteworthy climate or energy advertisers archived by Google last week.
Snapchat 🤳
On Snapchat this week, Georgia Conservation Voters began running an ad to encourage users to call their members of Congress about the 2023 Farm Bill.
🔦 Spotlight: Presidential candidates attack clean energy, climate advocacy on the campaign trail
The dozen or so Republican candidates for president have some of the biggest megaphones in politics right now, as the mainstream press is eager to report on every campaign stop and every word they say. And more than a few of these candidates have been using their megaphones to spout fossil fuel industry talking points or spread outright misinformation about climate change.
Here are some of the most common anti-climate talking points that 2024 presidential candidates have been amplifying on the campaign trail:
“Unleashing American Energy”
From emails to posts to campaign videos, this line has been an uncontested favorite across the board, and it has been used by the likes of Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, Doug Burgum, Tim Scott, and Mike Pence. The argument here is, of course, essentially a free pass for Big Oil to continue fracking and polluting… but packaged for voters as an appeal to job creation and lowering gas prices.
“Woke power grabs like ESG”
Another favorite line deployed by candidates like Trump, DeSantis, and Ramaswamy has been lumping environmentalism together with other social issues like trans rights and “CRT” and dismissing them all as “woke power grabs.” Two stand-out examples are Ramaswamy’s video about the “climate cult” and this bizarre, word-salad Facebook ad about “green energy slush funds” from Mike Pence’s PAC that was targeted at Montana and Arizona.
Just Straight-Up Climate Misinformation
And last but not least, several GOP candidates have engaged in what can only be called straight-up misinformation about climate change and the environment. Ramaswamy, who is polling at a dismal ~2.5%, is the largest culprit of misinformation in his quest to get Republican voters’ attention, including this Facebook and Instagram ad that makes staggering claims about fossil fuels and safety.
But that hasn’t stopped big hitters like Trump – who claims in a video on his campaign website that green energy policies are to blame for working families getting walloped by inflation – from getting in on the climate misinformation action. (P.S. See a full debunking of the “green energy causes inflation” myth here.)
Will this anti-climate campaigning pay off?
These candidates definitely seem to think so, especially when it comes to the GOP 2024 primary. But as a generational gap in the GOP emerges around climate – young Republicans are far more concerned about it than their older counterparts – one thing is certain: the issue of climate is going to be a hot topic this election cycle.
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 11,000 public Facebook posts mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 489,100 interactions.
President Biden again drove the climate conversation on social media, posting about the issue from both his officiall and campaign accounts. Several of his top-performing posts focused on recovery and resiliency for communities who have been impacted – or are about to be impacted – by climate change. This comes as the US prepares to enter peak hurricane AND wildfire season…
Over on the Right, the anti-climate trolls were out in full force this week. From an online hoard of climate-deniers going after Greta Thunberg because climate extinction hasn’t happened yet to Dan Bongino posting an article that claimed that a Democratic donor started the fire in Yosemite last year (and that it wasn’t, of course, anything to do with climate change or extreme weather), this week’s posts were dominated by a lot of personal, “ad hominem” attacks on pro-climate leaders and movements.
That didn’t stop Greta and others from doing their thing, though. This week, NowThis posted a brief video documenting Thunberg and other young climate activists’ protest outside an oil port in Malmo, Sweden.
Here were the top-performing feed posts (excluding Reels and Stories) related to climate and energy on Instagram last week:
Last week, over 6,100 public Instagram feed posts mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 3.8 million interactions.
The top two posts this week were the same meme about Greta Thunburg from @donaldtrumpjr and @wearebreitbart respectively. The third top-performing post came from @goodnews_movement about self-educated climate activist and lawyer Wang Enling.
Research spotlight: New Pew Research report on Americans’ climate attitudes
A new Pew Research Center survey finds large shares of Americans support the United States taking steps to address global climate change and back an energy landscape that prioritizes renewable sources like wind and solar. At the same time, the findings illustrate ongoing public reluctance to make sweeping changes to American life to cut carbon emissions. Most Americans oppose ending the production of gas-powered vehicles by 2035 and there’s limited support for steps like eliminating gas lines from new buildings. Read the new research from Pew >>
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>>
Trump goes after EVs while campaigning in Michigan (POLITICO, 6/27)
Despite GOP’s best efforts, companies in red states are still working on ESG initiatives (NPR, 6/27)
Green is in – UN releases a Sustainable Fashion Playbook (UN, 6/28)
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