We designed the #ClimateHope campaign with the goal of transforming the dominant cultural conversation on climate change from one focused on despair and devastation to one focused on the solutions we have available today and inspiring citizens everywhere to take action.
We launched the campaign in conjunction with the global media event 24 Hours of Reality: 24 Reasons for Hope, which took place on September 16—17, using the #ClimateHope hashtag to promote the broadcast through email and on a range of social media platforms. Following the conclusion of 24 Hours of Reality, we continued to seek out and share stories of climate action and solutions using the hashtag and encouraging others in the climate community and beyond to do the same.
We measure the success of the campaign in two areas. First, the campaign has generated over 240 million impressions for the #ClimateHope hashtag. Second, at a time when the global climate community is working together to build support for a historic international agreement on carbon reduction at the UN's COP21 meeting later this year, the campaign provides a shared, forward-looking concept the entire community continues to use to reshape public perceptions and create overwhelming demand for a strong agreement.
One of the major challenges that organizations throughout the climate community face is tackling widespread public perceptions of climate change as an unsolvable issue. At a time when renewable energies like solar and wind are more affordable and accessible than ever before and momentum is building for a landmark global agreement to address climate change later this year, these perceptions are not only dangerous but simply untrue.
We designed the #ClimateHope campaign to confront public misconceptions on climate change head on, turn attention to the practical solutions that are already in our hands, and inspire people everywhere to join us in working to support a strong agreement at the UN's COP21 summit in November. We chose the forward-looking hashtag "#ClimateHope" as both our message and medium, nodding to the digital world and tools, media know-how, and organizing techniques at the heart of our work building a twenty-first century movement for solutions. Equally important, we chose the term to replace despair with belief in the real possibility of a healthy and prosperous future without climate change for all of us – and empower audiences everywhere to take the steps necessary to create it.
Our first step was to launch the campaign with a bang, which we did in conjunction with our 24 Hours of Reality: 24 Reasons for Hope global media broadcast on September 16—17. In the lead-up to the event, we shared stories of climate action and success across our social media platforms using the hashtag, created and distributed #ClimateHope activist toolkits to our supporters and partners throughout the field, and reached out to other organizations to encourage them to spread the word as well. During the broadcast itself, we continued a steady stream of social media posts using the hashtag and watched as individuals and organizations around the world quickly adopted it for their own social media, starting conversations and spreading awareness of climate solutions on a truly planet-wide scale.
The results of this approach and the appeal of #ClimateHope speak for themselves as audiences weren't just receiving the message. They were talking about it and sharing it with their friends and families. On Facebook, #ClimateHope yielded a reach of over 1.2 million, nearly 2.7 million impressions, and 69,086 engagements. On Twitter, the hashtag appeared in 33,230 tweets from 17,747 contributors, generating 330 million impressions, reaching over 52.6 million users and leading #ClimateHope to trend in the US. Sixteen partners joined us in this campaign during 24 Hours of Reality, including Greenpeace, the Climate Group, Years Of Living Dangerously, 1 Million Women, UNFCCC, and Ben & Jerry's. Meanwhile, celebrities, media outlets, and organizations including Jason Mraz, Vanessa Huac, Upworthy.com, Ian Somerhalder Foundation, Maná, and the Story of Stuff Project also joined in.
The campaign in conjunction with 24 Hours of Reality also helped us significantly grow our supporter base, as we were able to attract 31,271 new followers on Facebook, 4,531 followers on Twitter, and 163,885 new email supporters.
Following 24 Hours of Reality, the #ClimateHope campaign continues as one of Climate Reality's signature campaign to build support for action on climate solutions, while other organizations have also picked up the hashtag to engage their own supporters. Since the broadcast, we've seen 140 million additional timeline deliveries from 22,710 tweets by 12,398 users sharing positive news of renewable energy, progress toward climate change action, and their reasons to be hopeful about the future of our environment.