The weather is no longer small talk. The accelerating climate crisis means it’s breaking news every day, everywhere. Yet the message that urgent action is needed still isn’t breaking through. Climate news stories are simply too big, scary and impersonal for many of us to look in the eye, even as temperature rises exceed the Paris Climate Agreement limits.

This disengagement impedes UNDP’s ability to advise and influence governments on important policy changes. The UNDP/ICCO partnership recognises that strategic, creative communications is key to making the issue resonate with people across the world.

The brief: Find a way, via creative execution and earned amplification, to change public opinion and behaviour, and finally make the climate crisis real.

The PR objective was positive tier-one press coverage in all target markets, and motivating adults to take a pledge that commits them to changing habits for the benefit of children in their life.

The creative idea was to present climate prediction data in a way that would resonate with people across the political spectrum, by changing the message – and the messenger.

Despite scientists agreeing on the facts, climate change has been politicized, rendering opinion more powerful than truth. However, data shows meteorologists are among the most trusted messengers on climate change, and love for our children is the single greatest predictor of someone’s willingness to take action.

Weather Kids combined the two: we trained kid meteorologists to deliver the ‘2050 weather forecas’t – if we do not take urgent action – using data from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2022 report.

The campaign features children from around the world ‘hijacking’ local and national TV weather reports to deliver forecasts from the future. The segments warn viewers of the catastrophic risks rising temperatures will bring, including an impact on 94% of the world’s

Our target audience was the ‘middle majority’: they are not climate deniers but are not taking action and are most likely to be avoiding climate news. Nevertheless, 60% of this audience check the weather forecast every day. We particularly wanted to reach parents, grandparents, younger generations, decision-makers attending COP28 and UNDP funding partners.

The forecasts were integrated into live television news broadcasts, with creative amplified by strategic, tailored PR outreach to media around the world. We partnered with meteorologists from the World Meteorological Organization and The Weather Channel to mount a global weather report takeover on World Meteorological Day.

Having children deliver the message diffused the topic’s divisiveness, giving it appeal for media that would not typically cover climate change. Research showed the campaign was likely to be subject to misinformation and conspiracy theories, so the PR agencies involved in the media rollout prepared for potential risks and negative narratives.

A call for support from the global PR community led to commitment from 45 agencies from all continents.

On March 21, 2024, in over 80 countries, kids took over as weather forecasters, interrupting the expected day’s forecast live on air, showing what life may look like in their lifetime if we continue the current course of climate inaction.

A customizable toolkit enabled ‘Weather Kids’ to be localized, taking over the weather forecast of over 300 TV networks in 42 languages.

The earned media campaign was rolled out pro bono by PR partners around the world, working together and with approaches tailored for each market and media outlet. Assets and activities included:

• A microsite urging action on behalf of children

• Social media outreach and engagement

• Celebrity and influencer engagement

• Customised and localised press releases.

This first-of-a-kind collaboration by the global PR and creative community was a huge success. The early outputs/outcomes of the ongoing campaign were measured by ICCO using the AMEC Integrated Measurement Framework:

• The earned media rollout surpassed KPIs, with early, positive coverage including CNN and Fox News, both of which have until now only reported negatively on climate change

• Weather Kids appeared in over 80 countries, airing or mentioned on 300+ TV and radio stations including BBC and Sky News

• All broadcast coverage included the call to action

• The weather forecast takeover and the media coverage had a total reach of 3.7bn impressions

• 328,000 people visited the Weather Kids landing page on UNDP.org

• Earned media coverage had 95% positive sentiment, despite the politicization of the topic; 92% featured climate urgency messaging, 90% included the call to action, 21% contained a direct link to the pledge

• Social media conversations resulted in 385m impressions; social media sentiment was 88% positive/neutral.

In the first three weeks, the online pledge was made by more than 5,000 people around the world.

The campaign has already strengthened UNDP’s reputation as a leader in climate action, and underlined the critical role played by strategic, creative communications: 38% of earned media coverage mentioned UNDP and search traffic in launch month was around 20% higher than average.

‘Weather Kids’ will continue, with activations including highlighting the names of children who climate action has been pledged for, and an extension into cinemas in 11 countries and gaming platforms in 84 countries.