Peoples’ Climate Vote

Agency: United Nations Development Programme

Browning Environmental Communications (BEC) was asked to support the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to create the largest ever survey of public opinion on climate policy. BEC brought in a coalition of partners, including polling experts from the University of Oxford, to develop a new polling methodology using mobile game networks, that enabled a huge sample of 1.22m people, as well as engagement of hard-to-reach populations, in countries such as Iraq and Kyrgyzstan. These numbers made it the largest survey of public opinion on climate change in history, covering 50 countries, and over half the world’s population. There is now a treasure trove of data on public opinion available on what the public thinks about dozens of different climate policies, a first in many countries. The results showed that belief in the climate emergency extends far beyond Europe, with majorities having this point of view in every nation.

BEC advised on the strategy and branding of the campaign, which was called Peoples’ Climate Vote, and was lead author on a 70-page report on this. BEC also led the communications effort at the report launch in January 2021, with over 1,400 articles across 94 countries in 37 languages, and an estimated reach of 2.4 billion impressions. BEC also oversaw the social campaign and engagement with NGOs and activists, with Greta Thunberg, Vanessa Nakate, and Xiye Bastida rallying in support. The results mean governments are much more aware of what the public thinks about the detail of acting on climate change.