CONTENTS PROCESS 01 ACTIVITIES 03 PARTICIPTING MEMBER PARTIES. 09 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS APPENDIX... 15

Transcription

1 CONTENTS PROCESS 01 ACTIVITIES 03 PARTICIPTING MEMBER PARTIES. 09 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS APPENDIX

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In the run-up to the COP21 in Paris, the EGP ran campaign on climate change together with its Member Parties and partners such as the Greens/EFA Group, FYEG, Global Greens and GEF. The campaign was executed in difficult political circumstances, as the political agenda was dominated by major European crises (Euro, refugees), terrorist attacks in Paris and national elections in many big countries of the European Union. Together with the Greens/EFA Group, the EGP developed and executed a public campaign, offered a range of flexible campaign tools to the Member Parties, organised internal and public events, and provided daily reports from the COP21. Although the participation of EGP Member Parties in this campaign was slightly below the participation level in the 2014 common election campaign, 18 out of 20 Member Parties, which campaigned on climate change in 2015, made use of the common campaign material and tools. 1. PROCESS The EGP Council in Istanbul in November 2014 adopted a proposal by the EGP Committee to develop and run a common climate campaign in the run-up to the COP21 in Paris (30 November 11 December 2015). This marked the beginning of a one-year process, in which the campaign was developed and executed. The campaign was officially launched early June Coordination Group The campaign proposal adopted by the Council foresaw the formation of a Coordination Group composed of nine members from the EGP Committee, Member Parties and the Greens/EFA Group. Members of the Coordination Group were Reinhard Bütikofer (EGP), Monica Frassoni (EGP), Yannick Jadot (Greens/EFA), Bas Eickhout (Greens/EFA), Lucile Schmid (EELV), Juan López de Uralde (EQUO), Annalena Baerbock (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), Oras Tynkkynen (Vihreät de Gröna), Cédric Metz (Déi gréng). Arnaud Pixteren (ecolo) joind the Coordination Group later. Shenna Sanchez (FYEG) and Keli Yen (Global Greens) participated in the meeting as observers. The Coordination Group convened three times on 23 February (Brussels), 25 March (Phone Conference) and 15 May 2015 (Zagreb). Discussions centred around the progress of the development of the campaign, activities of Member Parties and the cooperation with civil society organizations (e.g. on divestment). 1.3 Further cooperation with Greens/EFA The short time for the development of the campaign in cooperation with an agency required a number of additional meetings with the campaign leaders from the Greens/EFA Group, Yannick Jadot and Bas Eickhout, to take quick decisions. The Greens/EFA Group, which contracted and paid the agency, did also involve Mar Garcia (EGP Secretary-General) and Johannes Hillje (EGP campaign consultant) in the selection process of the agency as well as in working meetings with FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY 1

3 the selected agency. From September on, the campaign then relied mostly on in-house productions (except for a video with Party Leaders commissioned by the EGP), which had a negative impact on the professional standard of campaign tools. 1.4 Workshops & phone conference for campaigners Campaigners and Social Media Officers from EGP Member Parties and partners (FYEG, Global Greens, GEF) were invited to an one-day campaign kick-off workshop on 26 April 2015 in the European Parliament in Brussels. 30 representatives from 22 Member Parties participated in this workshop. The programme of the workshop included a presentation of the final campaign and ways to customize the tools and material for national purposes, presentations from Member Parties on their activity plans on climate change, a presentation on crowdfunding and a speech of an external speaker from Climate Outreach and Information Network on best practices in climate communications. In October, campaigners were invited to a phone conference, where Johannes together with Delphine Chalencon and Jean Kutten from Greens/EFA presented the plans for the last phase of the campaign and Member Parties reported about their activities. Campaigners from 21 Member Parties participated in this call. A final workshop was planned for the EGP Council in Lyon. Since the programme of the Council was cancelled on 14 November due to the terrorist attacks in Paris, the workshop did not take place. 1.5 Party Leaders Meeting Party Leaders were informed about the EGP s offers and activities around the climate campaign at meetings on 4 February and 9 October. The latter was also used to produce a video with the Party Leaders for the mobilisation to the Global Climate March. 1.6 Internal Organisation From the EGP, Reinhard Bütikofer was politically responsible for the campaign. Johannes Hillje was hired as an external campaign consultant to coordinate the campaign. Staff members from the EGP office such as Leigh Pisani (social media), Francesco Ajena (material), Anna Yeliseyeva and Vesna Jusup (organisational support) supported the execution of the campaign. Mar Garcia as Secretary-General oversaw the execution of the campaign and closely coordinated with Johannes. FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY 2

4 1.7 Lessons learnt The dependency on the Greens/EFA Group with regards to the services provided by the agency did sometimes delay or even prevent the realisation of campaign elements. A financial contribution to the costs of the agency would have strengthened the position of the EGP in this partnership. The formation of the Coordination Group was useful in the sense that those Member Parties involved in the group used the campaign material widely (GroenLinks, EELV, Déi gréng, EQUO, Ecolo, Vihreät de Gröna), except for Bündnis 90/Die Grünen. The workshop with campaigners proved again to be a very useful tool to engage key staff members of the Member Parties and strengthen the network among these people. 2. ACTIVITIES 2.1 Campaign toolbox Central element of the campaign was a toolbox for EGP Member Parties. The toolbox included flexible tools and material, which were offered in an open format, so that Member Parties could customise them to their individual needs. The campaign built upon the idea of the #Climatemoment the personal moment when people realise that climate change is happening and take action against it. As of September the claim was changed to #Parismoment to build a stronger connection to the host city of the COP21. However, when the terrorist attacks happened in Paris on 13 November, the claim became inappropriate and was therefore substituted by #Climatemoment again. Main elements of the toolbox included a Climatemoment corporate design kit, Climatemoment picture generator, a brochure on the carbon bubble and a guide to divestment, 13 topical factsheets, bank letter on divestment, social media visuals and a range templates for campaign merchandise. 2.2 Campaign material For direct distribution to supporters and the Member Parties, the EGP office produced a range of campaign material such the carbon bubble and divestment brochures and merchandise like bicycle seat covers, bags, buttons, pens and stickers. FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY 3

5 For the duration of the COP21, the EGP had the opportunity to hang a banner (5 m x 3,75 m) on the building of the Belgian trade union for public services at Place de Fontainas in central Brussels. 2.3 Events Global Divestment Day The EGP tried to mobilise the Member Parties to participate in the Global Divestment Day on 13/14 February. Among other efforts, this event was promoted at the Party Leaders meeting in February. While 22 Member Parties promoted this day of action in their countries, most of these activities were low-level online activities. Only 8 Member Parties organised a street action. Summer Schools The Summer Schools organised by Member Parties served as a good opportunity to present the campaign to the grassroots level. The EGP was present with a campaign stand and/or gave a workshop at Summer Schools in France, Belgium, Poland and Greece. Campaign material was shipped to other Summer Schools, where the EGP could not be physically present. FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY 4

6 International Divestment Conference An international divestment conference was organised in cooperation with Greens/EFA and 350.org in Paris. The one-day programme included speakers like Bill McKibben (350.org), Stephen Heintz (Rockefeller Brothers Fund), Mirjan Minnesma (Urgenda) and Nicolas Hulot (Special Envoy on Sustainability to President Hollande). The conference was well attended with participants from different European countries. The feedback on the event was very positive. Coastal Clean-up day As a new version of the transnational event in the Baltic Sea region, Members Parties of this region were invited to join the coastal clean-up day on 19 September. The main coordination was done by the Schwerin office of Reinhard Bütikofer, but the EGP supported with contacting Member Parties and the production of a common flyer for this event. Events took place in Kiel/Germany, Rostock/Germany, Talinn/Estonia and Melnragė/Lithuania. An event in Copenhagen had to be cancelled last minute and also the Finnish Greens cancelled their participation due to a competing charity event for migrants on the same day. Event Donors Part of the package that the EGP offered to Member Parties was an Event Donor initiative in cooperation with MEPs from the Greens/EFA Group. Nine MEPs offered to participate in climate events of Member Parties while paying the travel costs themselves (see appendix). Although this initiative was promoted several times, only the Lithuanian Greens made use of it. Global Climate March As the big final of the climate campaign, the EGP invited one delegation from each Member Party to the Global Climate March in Paris, one day ahead of the COP21. A Green Hub was already rented in Paris to host the green visitors, a transport sharing platform had been added to the website and Greens from different countries were ready to cycle to Paris. Eventually the call had to be cancelled, because the French authorities prohibited the demonstration for security reasons after the terrorist attacks in Paris. Instead, many Member Parties participated in marches in their countries and used the green high-visibility vests, which the EGP provided to them. FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY 5

7 2.4 Online Campaign With the Greens/EFA Group, it was agreed that the website (stopclimatechange.net) and newsletter of the campaign would be maintained by the Group and that the EGP would take care of running the campaign on social media, as the audience of the EGP on Facebook and Twitter (140,000 fans and followers) outnumbers those of the Group by far. Climatemoment Picture Generator The picture generator allowed people to upload their own photo, describe their personal climate moment and generate a picture, which could be shared directly on Facebook and Twitter. This tool was available in English, French, German and Spanish on the central campaign website and in Dutch on the campaign website of GroenLinks. In total, 1,061 pictures were generated with this tool. è Climatemoment Interrail In cooperation with FYEG, the EGP selected two young greens who travelled 10 days through Europe by train (Warsaw-Berlin-Venice-Barcelona-Lisbon-Paris) to visit pioneering projects in the field of sustainability, promote the common climate campaign in the different countries and organise local events with greens on climate change. The two travellers, Zuzana and Alex, reported from their trip with daily videos and blogs, which were viewed by over 6,000 people. è Video with Party Leaders At the EGP s Party Leaders Meeting in October, a professional crew filmed the Member Parties representatives saying Stop Climate Change in their mother tongue. The final clip, which build upon the No to Racism clip of the FIFA, was viewed over 62,000 times. è #StandUp4Climate Online Demonstration After the Global Climate March in Paris was cancelled, the EGP called all supporters to send their message to world leaders through this online tool. The online map allowed people to place FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY 6

8 themselves at their home location and add a message on the COP21 to world leaders. The tool was set up in cooperation with EELV. 7,580 people joined this virtual march. è Regular Social Media Postings Throughout the whole campaign, the EGP posted campaign content on social media, which connected the campaign to other current events (e.g. launch of Pope Francis encyclical 2015) or featured exclusive campaign media (e.g. Climate Interrail videos). The campaign content belonged to the most popular content that the EGP shared on social media in the second half of the year 2015: From the ten most successful Facebook posts (measured by how many people were organically reached), five posts included campaign content. Top 10 Facebook Post (measured by reached people) Timeframe: 03/06/ /12/2015 Date Type of Post Topic Peopled reached (non-paid) 28/10 Image End of bullfighting subsidies 161,330 06/98 Image Anniversary of Hiroshima & 113,270 Nagasaki bombings 14/10 Video Climate Interrrail video from 92,929 Lisbon 12/10 Video Climate Interrrail video from 49,283 Barcelona 30/11 Link Sweden will be one of the 48,494 world s first fossil-free welfare countries 14/11 Image Paris attacks 44,890 07/09 Video Refugees welcome 40,358 18/06 Image Pope Francis #Climatemoment 35,418 06/11 Link 5 ways to fix Belgium 34,646 10/10 Video Video with Party Leaders Stop Climate Change 32, Daily Reporting from the COP21 The EGP sent a briefing from the COP21 every morning to Member Parties and supporters. The daily newsletter gave an overview about the latest developments at the conference and featured exclusive videos, op-eds and interviews from green leaders and NGO experts who were present at the COP21. The briefings were read every day by around 1,000 people. A short survey after the COP21 among these readers showed that the newsletter was useful and much appreciated (98% rated it useful, 1% not useful, 1% don t know see also appendix). è FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY 7

9 2.6 Lessons learnt To motivate Member Parties to organise their own events in the context of a common campaign remains a tough battle. In this campaign, the EGP was more successful by organising events itself in Member Parties countries in cooperation with Greens/EFA and civil society (e.g. Divestment Conference). Professionally designed campaign material proved to be again very popular (e.g. cotton bags) and enhanced the visibility of the EGP brand among Member Parties and their supporters. While the EGP could play a constructive role for its Member Parties during the COP21 by providing daily reports from the conference, the main channel for external communication remains social media. It will be therefore vital for the EGP to focus on developing further attractive social media content that leads to higher reach and growth of the audience. FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY 8

10 3. PARTICIPATING MEMBER PARTIES Country Austria Party Die Grünen Claim Climate moment Other elements of the Toolbox Picture Generator Merch andise Participation in Climate March /other events Own campaign material X X Belgium Ecolo - X - X X X Groen - X - X X X Bulgaria Zelena Partija Zelenite - X - X X - Croatia ORaH - X Cyprus Cyprus Green X - Party Czech Strana Republi zelených X X - X - - c Denmar Socialistik - X X - X X k Folkeparti Eestimaa Estonia X - Rohelised Vihreät - Finland X X X - X - De Gröna Europe France Écologie X X X X X X Les Verts German y Greece Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Ecologoi Prasinoi X X X X X X - - FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY 9

11 Hungary LMP X - Ireland Comhaon tas Glas X - Italy Green Italia Verdi - X X - X - Lietuvos Lithuani žaliųjų a partija X X X X X - Luxemb ourg Déi Gréng X X X - X - Malta Alternatti va Demokrat ika X X X X - - Netherl GroenLin ands ks X X X X X - Miljøparti Norway et De X - Grønne Poland Zieloni - X - X X - Portugal Os Verdes X - Romani Partidul a Verde Strana Slovakia zelenych Slovenia SMS Zeleni Evrope Spain EQUO X X X X X - Sweden Switzer land Turkey ICV - X - - X - Miljoparti et de Grona Grüne Les Verts Yesiller ve Sol Gelecek Partisi X X X - UK GPEW X X X - X - Scottish Green Party X - Total An overview of Member Parties activities on Global Divestment Day 2015 can be found in the appendix. FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY 10

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14 4. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 2015 was a year dominated by two major European crises (Euro, refugees) and two terrorist attacks in France (Charlie Hebdo, Paris attacks). Many EU countries such as UK, Greece, Finland, Denmark, Poland, Croatia, Portugal and Spain held national elections. Climate change never made it to the top of the agenda of public interest and media coverage before the COP21 in some countries it even barely became an issue during the COP21 itself. This was certainly not the easiest time for running a common climate campaign. In this context, two behaviours of EGP Member Parties could be observed: First, more than 50% of Member Parties did not run a campaign on climate change this year at all. Secondly, those Member Parties that did campaign on climate change chose very different timeframes for running this campaign. For the common climate campaign, this reports draws three main conclusions: 1) The campaign was successful in the sense that 18 out of 20 Member Parties, which ran a climate campaign, made use of the material offered by the EGP. Having the campaign ready already in June was an asset, as many Member Parties started to develop their campaign later. 2) The campaign was not successful in the sense of mobilising more Member Parties to campaign on climate change the green key issue! - in the year of the COP21. This also shows that Member Parties continue to follow rather a national agenda. 3) With different national planning of Member Parties, it is still a challenge to organise common activities. International action days or remembrance days seem to be still the most promising options. However, the European crises in 2015 also revealed a potential for common activities on the issues, which are dominating the agenda at the same time in different countries. It can be expected there will be more, not less common current issues throughout Europe in the future. On the basis of the experiences of this campaign, this reports makes the following recommendations for future common campaigns and public communication activities of the EGP: 1) To enhance the EGP s role to facilitate exchange between Member Parties and look for common approaches on common issues, a regular exchange between communications/campaign officers could be organised, e.g. in the format of a monthly or quarterly phone conference. Through such an exchange the EGP would also learn about the Member Parties priorities, support them where possible and expose their activities on a European level. This campaign showed once again that phone conferences can be well attended by Member Parties, while general requests via do not cause many reactions. 2) An issue within the area of climate change that gained more and more traction throughout 2015 within the Greens but also in the wider civil society, is carbon divestment. Also the EGP s campaign material on this issue (brochure on carbon bubble and divestment guide) FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY 13

15 was very popular. While it is not clear yet, if civil society, in particular 350.org, will organise a Global Divestment Day in 2016, the EGP should develop with its Member Parties joint activities and communication material around this issue. Public campaigns on divestment need to combine an educative part (i.e. explaining what divest is and why it is important) with a concrete call to action (from which institutions and how should I demand divestment?). Explanatory videos (e.g. explaining for a family, from the daughter who attends a university to the grandfather who receives a pension, how their money is invested in the fossil fuel industry) and concrete tools to get active for segmented target audiences (students, clients of a certain bank or insurance, pensioners etc.) could be a way to support and enhance the divestment movement. 3) The rising frequency of EU summits on the level of Heads of States or Ministers, the stronger political role of the Juncker Commission (compared to former Commissions) and the steady increase of attention that the EU Parliament receives from media and the public, gives the EGP the opportunity to be a more visible communicator on EU issues and provider of green communication material to its Member Parties. Since many Member Parties are very active on Social Media and have a relative young electorate, useful content could include infographics, explanatory videos and other sharable social media content on current European issues. 4) In view of the next EU election, the EGP should start building a database with contacts of supporters, which can be activated for campaign activities. To give people a reason to subscribe to this, an offer need to made these people, which goes beyond a standard newsletter. This offer could mainly focus tools to get active on current issues. Much can be learned from organisations like Avaaz, 38degrees, 350.org or Obama s Organizing for Action. It might an idea to connect such an effort with a new start of the EGP s Individual Supporters Network. Johannes Hillje mail@johanneshillje.de / Berlin, 22 December 2015 FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY 14