{"id":139135,"date":"2022-04-22T09:53:30","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T08:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=139135"},"modified":"2022-04-22T11:34:31","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T10:34:31","slug":"earth-day-2022-did-cop26-comms-make-a-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/earth-day-2022-did-cop26-comms-make-a-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Earth Day 2022 \u2013 did COP26 comms make a change?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s Earth Day has a lot to live up to. Coming after the highly-anticipated and high-pressure COP26<\/a>, today brings opportunity for those who made big promises in October 2021 to hold themselves to account. Did the global event make real change to how organisations operate and communicate their purpose to the public? <\/strong><\/p>\n

One impact COP26 made in the minds of those paying attention to its message of climate change was the installation of a growing impatience; a need for accountability from those with the power and influence to drive action.<\/p>\n

\u2018COP26 and many other political events within the last six months have highlighted the public\u2019s growing lack of tolerance for hypocrisy,\u2019 says Propel Technology<\/a>\u2019s lead communications consultant Claire Dumbreck.<\/p>\n

\u2018For many, COP26 will be remembered for the rich elite jamming up Prestwick Airport with their private jets and then preaching to the masses about how they should give things up for the greater good.\u2019<\/p>\n

Perception of the global event \u2013 the success of which was predicted by Sir Vince Cable beforehand to be 60:40<\/a>: \u2018my heart is with the 60%; my head with the 40%\u2019 \u2013 wasn\u2019t 100% positive. While its failures ultimately fall on political promises that were short of expectations<\/a>, the PR and comms sector had a part, too:<\/p>\n

\u2018Some businesses and comms teams could have been more considered in their approaches \u2013 there were a lot of campaigns with fairly (very) loose connections to COP26!\u2019 believes One Nine Nine<\/a> managing director Barnaby Patchett.<\/p>\n

\u2018The issue here was that the press was flooded with transparent attempts to \u2018cash in\u2019 on COP26 \u2013 with no real connection to the goals and aims of the conference. The best campaigns were underpinned with a clear, authentic link to COP26, from organisations making tangible, significant progress on sustainability.\u2019<\/p>\n

Consumers and stakeholders increasingly expect integrity from organisations, not greenwashing, and PR and comms teams are being tasked with the practicalities of that responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u2018As an industry, comms was both part of the post-COP26 climate change discussion and has since had to respond to it,\u2019 says senior PR consultant Katy Barney, who heads up Ambitious PR\u2019s ESG & Sustainability PR services<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018Agency-side, this has meant more clients coming to us and asking for advice on how to communicate around sustainability, meaning an imperative to upskill rapidly and get to grips with the issues.\u2019<\/p>\n

Accessibility of language around climate change is a must-have skill for PRs in the wake of COP26, but as an industry we\u2019re not quite there yet, according to research conducted by the Hanover Group<\/a> Strategy & Insights unit, which targeted the general public in the UK and Ireland, and business leaders across Europe:<\/p>\n

\u2018Only 1 in 4 people (25%) were comfortable defining \u201cnet zero\u201d and much less so\u202fwith\u202fterms like \u201ccarbon trading\u201d and \u201cclimate refugees\u201d,\u2019 says Hanover Group\u2019s strategy & insights director Teodora Coste.<\/p>\n

\u201823% were uncomfortable defining any of the terms most often used at COP26.\u2019<\/p>\n

The obfuscating and grand-standing that reverberated around October\u2019s summit isn\u2019t necessary, or useful, for building climate considerations into campaign work. For Earth Day 2022, here are more practical steps:<\/p>\n

\u2018Wind the sanctimoniousness right down!\u2019 says Claire Dumbreck. \u2018Address any perception of \u201cus and them\u201d before more scepticism takes hold. Demonstrate genuine short-term human benefits of acting with the environment in mind (beyond the luxury of just feeling good about it).\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Start at home and focus on reducing your own carbon emissions and environmental impacts,\u2019 says Lexington<\/a>\u2019s director and head of responsible business Andrew Wilson. \u2018Do you really need to fly to that client meeting? Second, be critical friends to clients, provide constructive challenge on their own operations. Do agencies have the in-house expertise to advise on Net Zero strategies and approaches to reduce environmental impacts? Third, work with brands to produce communications that help to change consumer attitudes and bring about a shift in behaviour.\u2019<\/p>\n

Ultimately, use your skill as a PR; if you\u2019re part of the comms industry, you already have the tools to get the message out there:<\/p>\n

\u2018Zero and environmental change are so much more than a single-issue topic – there are lots of opportunities for PR teams to get creative,\u2019 says Katy Barney.<\/p>\n

\u2018There will always be another story or angle if you\u2019re committed to making change.\u2019<\/p>\n

For more on climate change and how the communications sector can help make a difference, check out this post on what PR and comms teams should know about sustainability<\/a>, a reflection on the success of COP26<\/a> from the Vuelio political team, and this guest post from Sir Vince Cable<\/a> featuring his predictions ahead of the summit.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s Earth Day has a lot to live up to. Coming after the highly-anticipated and high-pressure COP26, today brings opportunity for those who made big promises in October 2021 to hold themselves to account. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":139139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,7383,7272,3725,3729],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139135"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139135"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140503,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139135\/revisions\/140503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}