What are the hot topics for COP26 and what’s trending?

With forest fires in Siberia and floods in Europe and China, this month it has been hard to ignore the impact climate change is having on our weather patterns.

While many things can contribute to such events, experts say that global warming is making them more frequent – and more intense.

Will these natural catastrophes focus the minds of politicians before COP26 in November? The public certainly seems to hope so – protesters took to Parliament Square mid-July to urge Boris Johnson, as PM of the host nation, to make the climate crisis his top priority.

What topics will COP26 cover?

Regardless of what happens at the event itself, we do know what the key topics of conversation will be.

The event programme was published at the start of July, and top topics are:

• Finance
• Energy
• Youth & Public Empowerment
• Nature
• Adaptation, Loss & Damage
• Gender equality
• Science & Innovation
• Transport
• Cities, Regions & Built Environment

What’s trending in the COP26 space on social?

While the above topics are what will be spoken about at the event, Formative’s Social & Insights team has been monitoring the online chatter around COP26 to see what has been grabbing people’s attention over the past six months.

Here are the top 10 hashtags used in association with the event:

1 #cop26

2 #climatechange

3 #togetherforourplanet

4 #theclimateconnection

5 #climateaction

6 #climatecrisis

7 #sustainability

8 #climateemergency

9 #climate

10 #netzero

What should communicators be saying?

Armed with the event’s top topics and the trending hashtags to help your organization become part of the conversation, it should be simple to put together a top-notch sustainability marketing campaign based around the event… right? 

Well if you – or somebody you know – is looking for inspiration, check out these four blogs written by my talented colleagues at Formative Content:

• How do you uncover your sustainability stories? – Gay Flashman
• Stand up to scrutiny: 5 steps to robust sustainability content – Harry Kretchmer
• 3 ways to make ESG content engaging – Harry Kretchmer
• 3 ways to tell your sustainability story with impact – Andrea Willige

From how to create authentic, attention-grabbing COP26 content to ensuring it resonates with both your audience and your business aspirations – they feature plenty of advice to help you get started.

Download our free ebook On purpose: telling sustainability stories with impact here.

About the author: John McKenna is a Senior Content Editor at Formative Content. He is an experienced energy and finance journalist, helping organisations tell their sustainability and ESG stories. Connect with him on LinkedIn here.