Paris Summit media coverage had “appeasing rather than mobilising effect” on Germans

The intense media coverage of the 2015 Paris Climate Summit only had a “modest appeasing rather than mobilizing effect” on the German public, according to a five-author paper published by Nature Climate Change. Before and after surveys showed that respondents “learnt a few basic facts about the conference but they continue to lack basic background knowledge about climate policy [and] were not more likely to engage personally in climate protection.”
The authors of the study “go so far as to suggest that the lack of public engagement is a failure of journalism,” according to a Nature editorial on the paper. “Organisations, businesses, scientists, policymakers and others who advocate action on global warming must continue to strive to take the public with them. As many experts have pointed out, that will take creativity and more than repeated references to the serious nature of the problem — [at the upcoming COP23] in Bonn and elsewhere.”

Find the summary preview in English here and the editorial here.