With the possibility of the world's first Plastic Treaty on offer, Minderoo Foundation tasked us with making accelerating plastic production and pollution impossible to ignore.

We needed to ensure a strong outcome of INC-2 in Paris, and drown out the voices of big-spending plastic lobbyists who make change near impossible. To do that, we needed to spark public outrage, and visualise the problem in a way that made it impossible to ignore.

To ensure the strong outcome, we needed to infiltrate culture and spark a reaction from the general public, not just delegates, so we attached the devastating effects of plastic production to something the lobbyists at ‘big plastic’ couldn’t control. The weather.

We attached the devastating effects of plastic to something lobbyists at ‘big plastic’ couldn’t control. Weather.

The Plastic Forecast is the world's first plastic weather report.

The forecast measures the amount of plastic in daily rainfall, allowing anyone to see the weight of our plastic problem. It combines landmark data on atmospheric plastic research with real-time weather data to provide a daily estimate of ‘plastic rain’ in kilograms.

Scientists at the Minderoo Foundation were able to verify the data, applying it to the metropolitan area of France, allowing us to inject real-time weather data, creating a live Plastic Forecast for Paris throughout the UN's negotiations.

For the entire week of the talks, we hijacked major French news networks, getting them to include the first ever Plastic Forecast in their daily weather reports. A typically untouchable media channel.

The public was encouraged to check the forecast online, and help change it.

Data powered our strategy. We needed to show the weight of the accelerating plastic production problem to stem the flow of new plastic.

The data model for the Plastic Forecast combines existing scientific research on atmospheric plastic particles per m2 in Paris, existing scientific research on plastic particles per litre of rainfall, existing scientific research on the weight of plastic particles, which we integrated with a live feed from Open-Meteo to incorporate precipatation forecasts. By overlaying these data inputs, we could estimate the kilograms of plastic to fall every day.

Sadly, the research even confirms plastic particles in our atmosphere are constantly being deposited, even without rainfall. This is why, even at 0% chance of precipitation, there will always be ‘plastic rain’ to report. As rain falls, the plastic fall worsens.

Location data was also used to geo-target people nearby INC-2, and at the ChangeNow Climate Summit happening nearby.

Like all good weather forecasts, simple access was important, so we built a web app providing real time daily, monthly, and yearly plastic forecasts.

In the space of a few months, we worked with Collider Studios to craft a series of nine 3D plastic clouds which could react to live weather conditions, and change severity accordingly. Plastic can be seen falling from a cloud which resembles a plastic bag caught in the wind. It is accompanied by a horrific plastic rainfall soundscape crafted by Bang Bang Studios, who were able to create these entirely from the sounds of plastic.

The Plastic Forecast uses Open-Meteo, an open-source weather API that selects the best weather models for the selected location (Paris) and provides data as a simple JSON API, with flexibility to create a Global Plastic Forecast in the future.

The new forecast was launched at the ChangeNow climate summit in Paris by the French Minister for Ecology, and was supported with hyper-targeted outdoor around the UNESCO building where Plastic Treaty discussions took place, and digital placements on France’s biggest weather website. On the ground, we targeted those in and around the negotiations in France and real-time, contextual digital on weather websites such as Meteo France, France's biggest weather source. We called on them to show their support for change.

News stations were provided a range of assets so they could include our forecast in their regular ones. As a result, the Plastic Forecast for Paris was seen globally.

It earned coverage on major weather broadcasts across the world - including LCI, Aljazeera, CNEWS, France 2, France 24, WION, and BFMTV. A week-long feature on France 3, presented by Sebastien Thomas, kept the public informed of the daily Plastic Forecast throughout the INC-2 meeting.

Ultimately, supporting The Minderoo Foundation's Clean Oceans Mission.

With more than 2350 media mentions, we reached more than 1.3 billion in less than two weeks.

Global publications such as Huffpost labelled the campaign "a timely initiative", ScienceAlert described it as "pioneering work", and France's Minister for Ecology declared it a "major scientific advance" at the ChangeNow Climate Summit in Paris.

On World Environment Day, the UN itself co-signed our initiative.

Then, despite the lobbyists, the world's first plastic treaty was drafted. 30 countries making a new commitment to reduce their production. A strong outcome.

For the Minderoo Foundation, we exceeded the ask to create cut-through, rallying global public support for meaningful change, and influencing the outcome of the treaty without even being in the room.