Media coverage of climate finance and ESG rising dramatically

Media coverage of climate transition, sustainable finance and ESG is soaring 50 percent annually, according to a report released Wednesday by communications firm Cognito.

The report found mentions of ESG and sustainable finance grew over 50 percent in major media outlets in 2021 over the previous year. Mentions of “climate transition,” however, rose much faster — 135 percent — over the same period, with particularly large increases in relation to the banking, insurance and energy sectors.

Cognito also examined how press coverage of the main solutions driving the net zero transition has changed. Coverage of most of the 11 solutions studied -– ranging from carbon allowances and offsets to hydrogen –- rose by more than 50 percent.

In 2020, some media outlets only wrote about two of these solutions, whereas in 2021 most were reporting consistently across all 11 climate solutions.

Publications with the greatest increase in climate transition solutions coverage included Bloomberg (+228 percent), South China Morning Post (+330 percent), and the Financial Times (+40 percent), while coverage in the Wall Street Journal was flat.

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