The Climate Conversation

As political leaders, CEOs, media, NGOs and other organizations gather in Copenhagen for the UN conference on climate change (COP15), the conversation is hotting up.

We analyse who is leading the debate, on what topics, in what media, and how this is changing.

The latest commentary (at 20 November) on:

• The COP15 Top 15
• Key media topics
• Influencers and topics
• Influencers and media types

The COP15 Top 15

• Politicians dominate the conversation overall with six times more references than any other influencer group. NGOs and, increasingly, academics gain a voice in the global conversation

• In the political world, Barack Obama remains the most discussed and most prominent political leader but Gordon Brown is knocked off second place by Lars Loekke Rasmussen, PM, Denmark (previously 5th). Following the China and US meeting, Hu Jintao, President of the Peoples Republic of China, is now the third most prominent political leader in the climate conversation (previously 10th)

• The academics who are most prominent in the discussion are Corinne Le Quere, Professor of Environmental sciences at University of East Anglia, UK and Sir Nicholas Stern, author of the UK’s Stern Report on climate change policy

• Interestingly, in the US, the leading academic is not an environmentalist but the economist Steven D. Levitt of the University of Chicago (3rd most prominent academic)

• Pavan Sukhdev, a senior banker at Deutsche Bank, is the most prominent voice from the corporate world. He is on secondment to the United Nations Environmental Programme to lead the agency’s Green Economy Initiative

• NGO voices are still being led by Anna Keenan of Climate Justice Fast. The organisation has been the source of much media focus following Anna’s decision to fast at the UN climate talks in Barcelona

• The newly appointed executive director of Greenpeace, Kumi Naidoo, is the third most prominent NGO executive in our ranking. More comment is expected from Kumi, the first African Director of the NGO as the summit approaches

• Brigitte Bardot still has the lion’s share of coverage along with Paul McCartney, both gaining the largest share of voice amongst celebrities. Glenn Beck and Sting are the most notable personalities to up the ante over this period

Key media topics

• Following the conclusion of the meeting between Barack Obama and Hu Jintao, the spotlight on the role of the US and China has grown. A third (34%) of print media (increase of 22%), 13% of blogs (increase of 9%), and 14% of tweets (increase of 10%) cover what seems to be a theme that will continue to gather pace until attendance at the COP summit is confirmed by one or both parties

• Nearly two thirds (64%) of coverage in print media is concerned with the outcome of the COP15 summit. But the issue is losing prominence, down from 70% in the last two days

• The legislative implications of COP15 have risen from the 9th most widely reported topic to the 2nd in the last two days. A quarter (26%) of print media, 18% of blogs and 22% of tweets focus on this topic, an increase of 20%, 14% and 18% respectively

• The consequences of climate change are more widely reported on Twitter (15%) than in print media (10%)

• A more even split between the top six topics suggests that blogs provide a forum for more balanced discussion of the Climate Conversation. Print and Twitter tend to run with topic trends

Topics by influencer type

• Expectations around the outcome of COP15 is an area all the influencers are talking about, but the conversation is dominated by politicians (77%) and NGO’s (10%)

• The role of rainforests is a topic where all of the main influencers share a keen interest. Politicians are gaining the largest share of voice in this area (47%), but academics are also making their views heard (22%), as are NGO’s (14%) and celebrities (6%)

• Corporate representatives are gaining a large share of voice in the debate around investment in green industries, leading 23% of the discussion compared to 6% two days ago

• The NGO share of voice in discussions around the role of the US and China, and investment in developing countries has grown in the last two days

Influencer type by topic

• In the space of 48 hours, NGOs switched their focus from the role of developing nations (decreased 30% over the period) to other areas such as emissions from the developed nations (increased 3%), and the legislative implications of COP15

• Over the same period, Celebrities prominence in discussion around the outcome of the conference decreased (from 64% to 50%) as the role of the developing nations took a stronger hold (up 36% to 50%)

• The legislative implications of COP15 is a topic all the ‘influencers’ got involved in within the last two days (bar the celebrities), most significantly amongst politicians (20%) and NGO representatives (12%)

• The academics profile switched from the role of developing nations (33% decrease to 15%)) to focus on developed nations and their emissions (12% increase to 25%)

Influencers & media type

• Social media has taken on a more political voice with politicians gaining a larger share of voice in blogs (up 29%) and tweets (up 50%). Rather than blogging from their own sites, politicians take on guest blogging roles

• The NGOs continue to have a solid presence online, maintaining their share of voice on blogs (8%) and increasing over twitter to 18%, up 11% over the period

• The number of tweets mentioning NGOs has doubled in the last two days, from 7% of all tweets to 14%