Defeat misinformation
Battling climate change misinformation
Environmental Defense Action Fund
Services we provided:
Paid Media
Earned Media
Research & Message Testing
Content & Creative Development
Countering Misinformation
As sensational false narratives about climate change action plans started spreading across the country, EDF Action turned to BPI to help push back against this misinformation. By using Parry, BPI’s tool to fight misinformation, we were able to poll people and decipher which narratives people believed and which were just being shared widely. Then we worked on messaging to counter the narratives actually causing harm.
We delivered paid media directly to the audiences most vulnerable to these harmful narratives, and discovered which ads actually worked to reduce the sting of these misinformation attacks in the real world. Using this research, EDF Action created ads about how fighting climate change would improve lives by creating jobs and stopping environmental destruction, while not encroaching on individual freedoms.
Outcomes
We persuaded voters - suburban voters in particular - that action on climate change can create opportunity and jobs. After seeing our ads highlighting the economic opportunity climate action brings, we reduced the share of suburban voters who believe that climate action would cost jobs – 5 points over a control.
We had similar success with voters of color. A flight of ads that highlighted the economic opportunity and that also underscores the climate in crisis moved voters of color toward supporting climate action 10 points over a similar control group.
Overall, we learned that the best way to render climate disinformation less powerful is to focus on the economic opportunity it generates – not chasing or addressing individual disinformation narratives. This work has driven further investment in understanding and combatting climate disinformation.
