PR PROFESSIONALS TO TACKLE CLIMATE MISINFORMATION
An estimated 21.8 million UK adults have been misinformed about the climate crisis on social media in the past month alone. Consequently, over 75% of PR professionals feel that more needs to be done by the comms industry to tackle misinformation.
The research report from the PRCA’s Climate Misinformation Strategy Group looks at the role and responsibility of comms professionals in the fight against climate misinformation.
In the communications industry, one fifth of PR professionals admitted feeling nervous about their company’s handling of the climate debate. A further 60% of professionals believe that clients are too eager to jump on the bandwagon when talking about the climate crisis, often failing to make actionable change.
John Brown, CEO and founder of Don’t Cry Wolf and chair of the PRCA strategy group says, 'This year has to be about moving beyond intent and into action. There is a heap of extraordinary work coming from industries including energy, manufacturing and technology that is perhaps being silenced in favour of bandwagoning and greenwashing.”
Of PR professionals surveyed, 80% stated they are already playing an active role in advising organisations on climate crisis navigation, and 70% are giving advice on the climate crisis more frequently than five years ago.
The research consisted of two studies, conducted by Opinium, looking at the industry specifically and the general public. Opinium surveyed almost 200 UK PR and communications professionals, and 2000 nationally representative UK adults. The general public felt that the climate crisis was the third most important societal issue, behind Covid-19 and poverty.
“If this strategy group can play a meaningful role in changing the narrative from one of fear, nervousness and false promises to confidence, clarity and action, then we’ll have fulfilled our goal,” adds Brown.
