The ad sector only recently started to focus on its responsibility for climate action both in its operations and more importantly in using its superpower to change behavior. While the initial focus of leading international advertising associations has been on estimating and reducing operational emissions in line with established standards, there is strong interest in understanding the impact of advertising’s content and methods. Ad Net Zero is one of these associations and is developing an action plan to both evaluate the climate impact of advertising from shaping demand and explore how advertising’s powerful tools can be used normalize climate reality and model positive behaviors that empower consumers to make better choices and support climate policies.

While the entertainment industry has become more involved in influencing climate behavior, the ad sector has been largely overlooked even though its approach to storytelling is more ubiquitous, data based, and action oriented. There is an exciting opportunity to create collaborations with social scientists, climate NGOs, major brands, public sector, and academia to thoughtfully design the applications of this superpower to accelerate climate action and quantify the impacts.