In the lead up to the United Nations Climate Change Summit (COP26) Australia has been ranked as a D- by most global media and social media users. Data shared today by a leading global SaaS provider of media intelligence and social analytics, Meltwater Australia, shows that more than 1000 international publications have described Australia as “the worst greenhouse gas emitters”. In addition, more than 2,800 mentions referencing the Australian government’s “failure to commit” were posted socially in the last month.
While just 4% of all Australian coverage of Australia’s stance on climate had a negative sentiment, internationally that rate is closer to 20%, with Australia’s closest allies, the US, UK, India, and Canada, the most robust in their negative reporting of Australia’s position. The negative sentiment of international coverage on Australia’s climate stance has been strongly increasing as we near the start of COP26.
From a social perspective, the insights are equally damning. Trending social media key words about Australia’s current climate stance including “pigs” “failure” “losing game” and “hot mess”. The data also shows a sharp contrast in the emojis being used in posts about COP26 overall versus in relation to Australia. Social mentions about COP26 in general skew towards using positive and hopeful emojis, while those referencing Australia and COP26 lean into emojis expressing anger, frustration, and disbelief.
Top Emojis about COP26 & AU
Top Emojis about COP26 generally
David Hickey, Meltwater Executive Director Asia Pacific, commented “Our global insights data shows a pronounced disconnect between the sentiment in Australia and internationally, particularly with our key AUKUS partner countries, regarding Australia’s stance around climate. No doubt the government is closely considering the reception it will receive when it arrives at COP26.”
Meltwater will be available to provide similar analysis over the next two weeks. Please get in touch if you’d like specific updates on anything including:
Top Entities (country/people/businesses) being mentioned in associated with the summit (this is calculated by # of times they appear in media or social media mentions)
Shifts in sentiment (regarding Australia, or the summit more generally) day to day or before and after
Most vocal journalists/publications regarding the summit or a particular issue
Key themes summary (what were the trending topics of the day - can focus on social or news or both combined)
Volume of mentions on news vs social
Most popular posts per day/week (sorted by engagement - likes, shares, comments etc)
Top emojis in relation to a country, topic, leader, or the summit more generally.
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About Meltwater
Meltwater provides social and media intelligence. By examining millions of posts each day from social media platforms, blogs and news sites, Meltwater helps companies make better, more informed decisions based on insight from the outside. The company was founded in Oslo, Norway, in 2001 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with 50 offices across six continents. The company has 1,700 employees and 28,000 corporate customers, including industry leaders in several sectors. Learn more at www.meltwater.com