It's not just a weather report to us. It is our future.
Story
Kids took over the weather reports of over 300 networks across the world to bring us the forecast for 2050 and urge climate action. This clearly illustrates the cost of the climate emergency to next generations and reminds everyone that it’s about the children.
Philosophy
Climate Change through a Kid’s Logic On March 21, 2024, UNDP disrupted global airwaves with a special weather forecast to mobilize urgent climate action. In over 80 countries through the collaboration with TV broadcasters, Meteorological Offices and UNDP offices, kids took over as weather forecasters. Disrupting the expected day’s forecast live on-air with one showing what life may look like in their lifetime if we continue on the current course of climate inaction. The science was told through a kid’s logic for everyone to understand. What does it mean if heat waves are going to be 5.6 times more likely in 2050? It means we'll be stuck inside. We localized ‘Weather Kids’ across the globe, taking over the weather forecast of over 300 local networks in language and with kids representative of the local population, if not cast directly. Weather Kids is currently extending into cinemas, online gaming and out-of-home.
Problem
Kids share the forecast of their future. The idea was to present scientific prediction data from the IPCC reports in a way that would resonate with people across the political spectrum, by changing the message – and messenger. Who delivers the facts is often more important than the facts themselves. Yet data shows meteorologists are among the most trusted messengers on climate change, and love for our children is the single greatest predictor of willingness to take climate action. The Weather Kids combines the two: training kids as meteorologists to deliver the 2050 weather forecast – if we do not take climate action today – using data from the UN IPCC 2022 climate assessment report. However, to make the data more compelling we needed to translate it in simplest terms. Creating an emotional tie grounded in hard truth: tomorrow's weather isn't set, we still have time to change the forecast.
Result
Early outputs measured according to the AMEC Integrated Measurement Framework: Earned media rollout surpassed all KPIs, with positive earned coverage including Fox News, who have until now only reported negatively on climate change. The Weather Kids appeared in 80+ countries, airing or mentioned on 300+ TV and radio stations including BBC, ITV, TVE, CCTV, RAI, NHK, CNBC, DW, SKY NEWS, AL ARABIYA. Total reach of 4 billion impressions inclusive of takeover and media coverage 328,000 people viewed the UNDP.org Weather Kids landing page. Media coverage: 95% positive sentiment or factual coverage of the campaign, despite the politicization of the topic; 92% features messaging around climate urgency, 90% included the call to action Social media conversations resulted in 385m impressions; and 88% positive or neutral sentiment. 38% of earned media coverage mentioned UNDP and Search traffic for UNDP in launch month was 10-20% higher than average.
