META: Combating Climate Change

The entire world is facing the greatest threat of ‘Climate Change‘ and the need to tackle it grows manifold everyday.  As world leaders, advocates, environmental groups and others meet in Glasgow this week at COP26. Meta wants to see “bold action agreed to, with the strongest possible commitments to achieve net zero targets that help limit warming to 1.5˚C.” Meta is going to play its part too and as a platform connecting over 3 billion people every month, they too have an opportunity and a responsibility to make a real difference.

Last year Meta achieved net zero emissions for their global operations and they are now also supported by 100% renewable energy. In order to achieve this, they have invested in wind and solar energy to cover all their operations. But this is not enough. 

“Social media companies have the power to connect people with each other to make a difference at scale, amplify marginalized voices and share powerful information. Every day we see people use our services to raise awareness, organize for action, and make their voices heard on a wide range of environmental issues. We want to play our part by helping people find accurate, science-led information while also tackling misinformation.” says Meta.

Elevating Authoritative Climate Information

Last year on Facebook, Climate Science Center was launched to connect people with factual resources from the world’s leading climate organizations. The Climate Science Center also offers steps which people can take to combat climate change. Now, Meta is expanding this centre to over 100 countries. In addition to it, they are also adding a new section that shows countries’ greenhouse gas emissions as compared to their targets and commitments.

“Earlier this year, we started adding informational labels to some posts on climate change directing people to the Climate Science Center to find out more. We’re now expanding these labels on posts in more than a dozen countries, including for the first time in Belgium, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain and Taiwan.” Meta says.

Tackling Climate Misinformation

Within this vast database, misinformation can be a serious issue. Hence to tackle the same, Meta has partnered with more than 80 independent fact-checking organizations around the world to review and rate content, including content about climate change. Furthermore, Meta is also applying penalties on people who share false information frequently.

“Ahead of COP26, we’ve also activated a feature we use during critical public events to utilize keyword detection so related content is easier for fact-checkers to find — because speed is especially important during such events. This feature is available to fact-checkers for content in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, German, French and Dutch.” says Meta.

Taking Action on Climate Change

Meta is also supporting the UN by encouraging conversations around climate change and helping people take action. “With the help of Spectrm, the UN will soon be launching an updated version of its ActNow chat experience with 10 new actions you can take to combat climate change. It’s available on Messenger through the app, Instagram and the UN website. In time for COP26, Messenger is supporting the work of the UNFCCC by also releasing new camera stickers that can help you strike up a conversation by visually showing your support for the planet in your next Story or chat on Messenger and Instagram, or conversation in Messenger Kids.” Meta says.

Introducing Green Boost for Small Businesses

Meta is launching a sustainability training program to support businesses on their apps to take climate action, reduce their carbon emissions and help grow their business in a sustainable way. The sustainability training program begins this month with businesses in the UK and Spain.  Next year, the program will be expanding to France, Italy and other countries.

Sharing Climate Voices During COP26

During COP26, Meta will be featuring experts and scientists in new content designed to inform and inspire action. “We’re launching a new podcast series called Climate Talks hosted by Sophia Li. We’ll be live-streaming a Say It With Science conversation on Facebook Live covering health and climate change. On @instagram, we’ve launched the editorial series Our Planet in Crisis, which features the stories of activists and organizers who are dedicated to spreading awareness and empowering others to take action in their local communities.” says Meta. 

While the battle against climate change is far from over, these are just a few steps which Meta is taking as a company and as a platform to try and make a positive difference.