International coalition launches clean energy campaign
By Tom Lawless on Thursday, September 17, 2015
The UN Climate Change Conference in Paris this December will see world leaders come together to agree a plan to address carbon emissions.
The conference presents an opportunity for climate groups and other organisations to campaign for world leaders to support their causes, creating a crowded news market in the preceding months.
The Global Apollo Program – a plan for internationally coordinated and publicly funded research aiming to make clean energy cheaper than fossil fuels in 10 years – cut through the debate by establishing an international coalition of leading scientists, business leaders, politicians and academics to urge global support for the Program.
In a letter published in the Guardian on 16th September, 27 leading figures including Sir David Attenborough, Prof. Brian Cox, Unilever CEO Paul Polman, Zac Goldsmith MP and Jeffrey Sachs called for the Global Apollo Program to be adopted by world leaders by the time of the Paris conference. The letter appeared alongside a video from Attenborough explaining the aim of the plan and further urging support.
The campaign, being led by corporate communications agency Headland, resulted in news pieces in 13 countries and in several languages and created significant discussion across social media in the first 24 hours of the letter being published.
