Following Trump's lead is a mistake. It's time for agencies to focus on climate

On the first day in office, Donald Trump signed an executive order to formally withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, turning back on the scientific consensus about climate change and a growing global alignment around clean energy. The US will now join Iran, Yemen and Libya as the only countries to currently stand outside the agreement, which was signed 10 years ago in Paris.

For the first time ever, annual average temperatures reached 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in 2024—dismantling environmental protections and fuelling the flames of climate denial is throwing gasoline on an already raging fire.

When considering the implications of this act, it’s important to remember one thing: climate change is a fact. So, the question for PR and advertising agencies is chillingly simple: Will you profit from the ashes or help build a world that doesn't burn?

2024 was the hottest year in history, and global weather disasters cost at least $320 billion, pushed millions of people out of their homes, and generated tens of thousands of news stories and even more posts, videos, and updates online. 

Asia is by far the most climate-vulnerable part of the world, where the effects of weather disasters are already felt most directly. For example, Singapore is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the world. Major cities like Jakarta, Dhaka, Manila, Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok are positioned in coastal areas that will be displaced by rising sea levels. Air pollution is responsible for nearly 2.4 million deaths in India and 2.2 million deaths in China every year.

Just like you wouldn’t plan a picnic without considering the weather; countries, companies, and agencies that try to plan for the future without considering climate change are risking disaster.

That includes those who follow Trump, and any corporate leaders who think this is the time to step away from their climate commitments. Climate disasters already affect consumers and citizens in profound ways that will impact the economy and national politics. 

Money spent on rebuilding homes or paying for shelter and transportation as people flee a disaster trades off with other spending priorities. Pressure on food prices and internal population shifts raise the political temperature too. Social movements and public opinion will put pressure on high emitters and the companies that enable them. 

At the same time, hundreds of millions of people across the world are also experiencing the power and potential of clean energy. For example: Pakistanis added enough solar panels to their homes and businesses to generate one-third of their total national electric capacity—in 2024 alone. Most of these panels went up without any incentive or organised programme, simply because they work better than fossil energy. Solar power is now the world’s cheapest and most abundant source of energy, and other clean technology—heat pumps for efficient heating and cooling, electric vehicles for transportation, batteries for stable and reliable power—is accelerating to match it. 

This is why communications and PR agencies need to take the fact of climate change seriously. Support for climate action was never just a product of political expediency, and political expediency should not drive a retreat from climate action. Working with polluting clients will have a broad impact on your entire portfolio as the pressure for action continues to heat up, and people feel the impacts of climate disasters more acutely. 

The future will be hotter, but it will also be one where people and economies are more aligned with the need for climate action. The only long-term impact of recent setbacks to climate action will be to show who was cynical enough to try to take advantage of poor leadership, and who had the vision to do what was needed at a moment of urgent crisis. Choose wisely. 

Duncan Meisel is executive director of Clean Creatives, a campaign group pushing advertising and PR agencies to pledge against working with fossil-fuel companies.