Two of the world’s biggest social media companies last week announced climate change initiatives to support COP27 and beyond. TikTok launched its #climateaction global campaign, which aims to provide ‘access to credible climate information’ and elevate the voices of climate advocates and experts. As the company’s statement says:
we want to inspire hopeful dialogue and real action for a more sustainable future.
Along with the #climateaction hashtag, the company is encouraging TikTok users to follow @tiktokforgood to help promote positive impact in a variety of ways. The company hopes that TikTokers will take up the cause and share what they’re doing to help tackle the climate crisis. While it’s easy to sneer at this type of project as nothing more than a cynical marketing stunt, there’s no question that reaching the younger generations is hard, and needs some clever out of the box thinking.
Data from Pew, the US research giant, suggests that Gen Z and Millennial adults are more likely to engage with climate change content on social media. The report says that this younger demographic also reacts strongly to climate issues, whether it’s anxiety about the future, or anger that not enough is being done to deal with the problem. Gen X and Boomers were found to be far less responsive.
The Meta Climate Question
On a similar note, Meta, owner of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, has announced that it’s become a founding member of the Asia Clean Energy Coalition. The coalition, which also includes Amazon, Apple, Google, Nike and Samsung, aims to help drive the adoption of clean energy across the region. This new project reflects the growing realization that more action is needed to drive renewable energy alternatives across the Asian region, especially because the area is so heavily dependent on fossil fuels.
In addition to this work, Meta has also introduced several tools to help in the fight against climate change. A Climate InfoFinder and associated Climate Science Literacy Campaign both aim to combat climate misinformation, and are part of the company’s broader approach to fact checking and labeling bad data.
Climate Pledges in Facebook Groups have also been introduced this month. Developed in collaboration with the UN Environment Program and UN Act Now, Climate Pledges are designed to encourage grass-roots participation in mitigation, by providing a structure for Facebook Groups to become directly involved.
Admins can activate various pledges in their Groups – such as switch to renewable energy or reduce food waste – at which point members can sign up and commit to action.
Global Partners, Global Impacts
Meta has recently been very vocal in demonstrating its focus on the environment. The company claims to have achieved net zero greenhouse gas emissions for its global operations since 2020, due to the fact that all operations are run using renewable energy.
This year the company also announced a partnership with a number of other tech companies like Spotify, Alphabet and Stripe, to launch a carbon removal framework to encourage carbon removal technology. The group has already committed nearly a billion dollars to what they call the Frontier project.
Whether carbon removal technology is a viable, honest or indeed effective option to use to tackle the climate emergency is a moot point. Several reports reflect the view that the technology is too expensive and too inefficient to deliver the kind of impact the planet needs. But in the words of the old song, it’s ‘probably better than nothing’.
Meta does, however, have a justifiable claim to be a prime mover in the climate space. According to a survey the company did earlier this year, over 40 million Facebook members have joined at least one of the 24,000 Facebook Groups dedicated to the environment. Hence the launch of the Pledges.
All of this is excellent, of course. Although it has to be said, it would be easier to take these actions at face value if the CEO himself didn’t persist in traveling around the world in a very dirty private jet. Using a standard commercial flight emits a fifth of the CO2 emissions of a private jet per passenger. For a supposedly committed environmentalist like Mark Zuckerberg, this is perhaps an unfortunate demonstration of intent.
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