About the project

Apart from being a valuable tool for the Foreign Office, the interactive map raised worldwide awareness of the implications of climate change. The intuitive rollover states reveal the consequences of a 4 degree rise in temperature and allow the user to link out to further related information.

The latest scientific evidence on climate change before Copenhagen was presented at the end of September 2009. This provided a time-limited opportunity to create a newsworthy, scientifically robust campaigning tool, which demonstrated why Copenhagen matters to Foreign Ministries, for the Foreign Secretary to use in a high impact political campaign to push his climate security narrative and help create the political conditions for a deal.

The result

Widespread UK print media coverage included publications with total circulation of over six million

Online media coverage included many of the UK's most influential news, environment and scientific websites leading to over 60,000 visitors to the campaign web hub www.actoncopenhagen.gov.uk within a week. There were over 80,000 visitors who used the interactive 4 degree map hosted on the Guardian.co.uk alone.

UK television coverage was aired on BBC Newsnight and Channel 4 News on the launch day. The map has been widely blogged about on news and specialist environmental / science blogs and was simultaneously launched by FCO posts around the world, reaching Foreign, Environment and in some cases Prime Ministers (e.g. Prime Minister Rudd in Australia and President Calderón in Mexico).

Post initiatives resulted in international print media coverage in papers with a total circulation of over ten million and widespread international online media coverage on websites attracting audiencesof millions.