Charity: International NGO

Q. What is the impact of denialism in the clean air debate?

What we did?

Signify looked at sharing of articles, blogs and video on the subject of climate change (>300 million shares), and air pollution (>18 million shares) over the past five years.

The goal of the research was to identify which tactics and storylines are most effective in attracting attention and support for opponents of clean air regulation.

Key insights.

Outright denial is not effective in most countries, but thinking about air quality is seen as a luxury in developing countries.

Opponents of regulation have achieved the most success by putting clean air in opposition to working class livelihoods - a tactic that originates with the gilets jaunes but has proved highly effective in rallying opposition to ULEZ and other clean air zones.

Think Tanks and other well resourced opponents of clean air regulation are very interested in miracle scientific solutions to pollution, but these are not interesting or credible for the public.