LET’S DEFUND CLIMATE DENIAL IN THE MEDIA

We’re taking on climate denial in The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Daily Express, GB News and Talk Radio by defunding them.

Brands spend millions boasting their green credentials, and will pull their funding when they see their adverts alongside climate denial. Our model is simple and effective, with a track record of success.

But we need YOUR help to grow a more long-term, grassroots support base for this fightback. Together we can build a media that will report accurately and transparently on the climate crisis, for the benefit of all.

UK Media are telling lies about climate change and undermining climate action 

Elements of the UK media have been pushing climate denial and delay narratives for years. Recently The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Daily Express, The Sun, GB News and Talk Radio are telling readers, viewers and listeners, that:

• Climate change is not that bad
• Current government action is harmful (in fact an independent report recently stated that  more must be done.)
• We should introduce fracking, usually at expense of renewables
• Environmental protesters are out of touch and we should punish them heavily (even suggesting we deport them to Rwanda.)

These are the same media that have previously claimed, multiple times, that climate change isn’t real.

This editorial activity is affecting public sentiment and the willingness for people, governments and businesses to take the necessary climate action to keep within 1.5 degrees of warming .At a time where millions are already dying each year from the effects of climate change, this has to stop now. 

We desperately need your help to defund this dangerous, divisive rhetoric against climate action. 

Will you chip in £10 to help get us started? 

We can defund these toxic "stories" by getting brands to withdraw their funding

We intend to hitting these media where it hurts…in their pockets. Based on the highly successful Stop Funding Hate model, our small team has been tirelessly tracking attacks on climate action for months. We’ve been encouraging supporters to find the brands they shop with that advertise alongside these articles and TV/radio shows and let them know. The brands, who spend millions boasting their clean credentials, and want to avert climate disaster as much as us, usually pull their adverts (see here and here) or talk to those media directly about it. This works - with media changing their editorial lines as a result.

Help us grow a grassroots fightback against the media 

We are a small grassroots not-for-profit. We are partially funded, up until now have been operating on a hand-to-mouth basis. With your donations we want to build a coordinated fightback that will end the relentless assault on climate action in our media.

We invite you to become a founder member of this movement and help build a media that will report accurately and transparently on the climate crisis. For the sake of all of us.

Our initial target of £5,000 will provide our team with the resources for: 

• EXPANDING our existing monitoring beyond four core newspapers, to ensure that as many pieces of climate misinformation are called out and advertisers are informed.
• MOBILISING hundreds of Stop Funding Heat supporters to pressure companies to withdraw their advertising.
• LAUNCHING a specific campaign targeting supermarkets, who are one of the biggest culprits when it comes to advertising alongside climate misinformation in the UK. 
• COVERING core costs that are inevitable when running a not-for-profit, however small (such as having a website/domain, access to secure email and performing legitimate financial audits)

Stop Funding Heat are holding the UK media to account: building a more transparent, accurate reporting environment 

Stop Funding Heat is a movement of people from various backgrounds concerned with the damage that climate misinformation is doing in our newspapers, TV, radio and online. 

We are not pushing for any change in the law or regulation. Our aim is simply to tackle the financial incentives that encourage inaccurate and harmful content through a community-led, brand-focused approach. It’s crucial that this kind of reporting is disincentivised before more harm is done to public sentiment, and to the real lives and livelihoods affected by the climate crisis.

The Stop Funding Heat organisation is modelled from Stop Funding Hate’s unique theory of change. We know that we can hold the UK media accountable and abolish their harmful rhetorics, and we know this because organisations like Stop Funding Hate, Check My Ads and Sleeping Giants have paved the way.

Since starting in 2020, this is the first time our small not-for-profit has asked for donations. Your support will help Stop Funding Heat take its next big step towards changing hearts and minds. So far we have achieved a lot with a small team publishing crucial reports and growing our online community, but we are now ready to take the next steps in defunding climate denial in the UK. 

The UK media is launching a full-on attack on climate policy. 

Help us fight back, by making their actions bad business.

Thank you for your support.

The Stop Funding Heat Team.