TV, radio, and online coverage were more likely to link climate change to the Nepal floods than social media, with the strongest connections in the first two days before attention shifted to casualties, rescue efforts and immediate impacts.
Why The Frequency of Climate News Coverage Matters
When climate issues are covered clearly and consistently in the news, it helps spark real public conversations – and real climate action.
That’s why we’ve started tracking how often climate change is mentioned in flagship news broadcasts from the UK’s Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs).
With expert input from the University of Exeter’s newly formed Centre for Climate Communications and Data Science (C3DS), we’ve built an interactive tracker that shows how often the climate crisis is covered by the UK’s most watched and listened to TV and radio news programmes.
We compare this to other issues the British public says matter most, using data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Opinions and Lifestyle Survey.
What we track
Right now, we’re monitoring coverage across the BBC (TV and radio), Sky News, ITV News, Channel 4 News, and Channel 5 News.
We tracked how frequently those newsrooms covered the climate crisis between October 2023 and March 2025.
The ONS survey average over that period suggested that 58% of adults see climate change as one of the country’s most pressing issues. Yet, as our data shows, climate change was mentioned in only about a third of PSB news programmes.
We also track how climate coverage compares to other big issues like crime, immigration, or international conflict. Explore the data here and see what’s getting the most attention.
Our Tracking
We combine smart technology with human analysis to reveal how often, and how effectively, key issues like climate change are covered in the news.
Using expert-chosen keywords and public opinion data, we track trends across major UK broadcasters. Then we go deeper, reviewing stories ourselves for context and impact.
See how it works here.
Related Insights
Nepal floods: Climate change featured early, but faded as coverage turned to the human toll
Climate concern rises to highest level since 2024 after summer of extreme weather
Almost two-thirds of adults in Great Britain now see climate change and the environment as an important issue the UK faces, as record-high summer heat, drought and wildfires brought the impacts of a changing climate closer to home.
Heatwaves, wildfires, emergency alerts and Rosebank: Where did public service media join the dots?
TV and radio were much more likely than online and social media to connect a week of heatwaves, wildfires, emergency alerts and North Sea drilling. Drilling received the least coverage, but was the topic most consistently linked to climate change.
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