Media coverage of climate change drops globally

Media coverage of climate change has declined by nearly 40% worldwide since its peak in 2021, with an even sharper drop in Europe, according to a 2025 Eurobarometer survey. Despite this decline, 85% of Europeans still consider climate change a serious problem.

Record-breaking temperatures in 2026

August 2026 was recorded as the hottest month ever, with an average surface air temperature of 16.96°C, 0.85°C higher than the average for August during the period 1991-2020. The summer of 2026 was the third hottest ever recorded across the entire European continent and the hottest in Western Europe.

U.S. temperatures and media trends

In the United States, the period from January to August 2026 was the hottest since records began in 1895, with an average temperature of 14.43°C. However, media coverage of climate change had dropped by 25% compared to 2025.

Tracking global media coverage

The data comes from the Observatory of Media and Climate Change (MeCCO) at the University of Colorado Boulder, which tracks media coverage of climate change through 131 sources in 14 languages and 59 countries. However, MeCCO's analysis only covers written press, excluding television and social media.

European trends and coverage patterns

In France, the coverage follows the European trend, but peaks linked to summits last longer than in the rest of Europe. The coverage remained at the 2021 level until 2024, with the most significant declines occurring in 2025.

Peaks and troughs in media coverage

Since 2021, coverage has experienced several peaks, largely linked to United Nations Climate Conferences, though most have not reached the levels of COP26. Coverage also increased during the 2023 heatwave, when United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres declared, "The era of climate warming is over; the era of global boiling has arrived."

Media focus on political and weather events

In recent years, media coverage has followed the global diplomatic calendar or meteorological events: it takes a major political meeting or a disaster to attract media attention. The summer of 2026 was no exception, with French coverage once again exceeding its 2021 average.

Public perception versus media trust

According to the 2025 Eurobarometer, 85% of Europeans consider climate change a serious problem, and 52% believe traditional media do not provide clear information on the subject. A 2025 Reuters Institute survey reveals that in France, only 36% of those surveyed declare trusting the media to inform themselves about climate change, the lowest rate among the eight countries studied.

Google Trends and public interest

Google Trends confirms this trend, with searches on "climate change" showing peaks in April 2022, 2023, and 2024, largely due to Earth Day doodles on Google's homepage. However, in 2025 and 2026, the doodles celebrated the beauty of the planet without mentioning "climate change."

Other crises overshadow climate change

Among the crises the world is facing, three in particular have contributed to relegating climate change to the background in the media: wars, the rise of artificial intelligence, and the return of Donald Trump to the White House. In February 2022, the invasion of Ukraine shifted European attention from climate issues to security and the energy crisis.

AI and political shifts affect media focus

The launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 led to a significant shift in research focus, with AI research surpassing that on climate change by a ratio of about 27 to 1. Donald Trump's return to the White House in January 2025, with his withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, further contributed to the decline in media attention on climate change.

French public interest and media decline

In 2024, the French public was the most attentive to climate information among the eight countries studied, with 60% of those surveyed saying they had followed it during the previous week. However, media attention given to climate in France continues to decline, with the proportion of French people who inform themselves about climate every week having decreased by 15 points since 2022.

Consolidation of media power

Multinational media groups have continued to consolidate, drawing a globalized, impoverished landscape marked by increased concentration of power, particularly in the hands of a few billionaires and private investment funds. The acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount in October 2026 is the latest in a series of operations unfavorable to the media treatment of climate change.

U.S. media cuts and European elections

In the United States, CBS News dismantled its climate team at the end of 2025, and at the beginning of 2026, the Washington Post eliminated 14 climate journalist positions. This reduction in media coverage should alert the European public as several key elections approach on the continent.

Future outlook for climate coverage

The World Meteorological Organization predicts that a very intense El Niño episode will increase the risk of extreme weather phenomena until 2027. If the observed trend is confirmed, climate change could return to the forefront of the news. However, this would not necessarily mean the end of "the eclipse": the subject could easily disappear from the media again.