Carbon Emissions in the News, 2019–2026: Attention, Geography and Tone of Global Emissions Coverage, and How It Compares with Research and Invention
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: We measure how carbon dioxide and greenhouse-gas emissions were covered in a global news index from January 2019 to July 2026, using 145,200 de-duplicated articles, and set that coverage beside 45,064 research papers and 7,506 patent families on emissions. Six results stand out: Attention peaked in 2021. The topic's share of news rose 1.72-fold from 2020 to 2021, to 13.25 articles per 10,000, and fell 38.2% by 2025 (8.19 per 10,000). The peak month was November 2021, the month of COP26, at 21.2 per 10,000. A November rhythm. November carries the largest share of a typical year's coverage (10.09%), and September to November together carry 28.41%. Geography. Europe's share of located emissions news is 1.72 times its share of all news; North America's is 0.69 and India's 0.57. Azerbaijan (17.63), Denmark (5.71) and Finland (4.78) are the most over-represented countries. Within India, Gujarat (2.75) leads by lift; within the United States, Oregon (2.73) and California (2.07) lead among states whose place tags hold up in a sample check. Shifting attention. Between 2023 and 2025 the topic's share of national news fell in 21 of the 25 countries with most coverage, including the United Kingdom (18.71 to 9.15 per 10,000) and China (23.92 to 11.86). The United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan show sharp rises in the years they hosted the UN climate conference. Tone and urgency. 70.5% of emissions articles are positive in tone (all news: 56.8%), yet 79.4% are rated critical priority (all news: 42.6%). Research and invention. Emissions papers grew from 3.81 to 10.81 per 10,000 papers between 2015 and 2025 (2.84 times). Patent families grew 17.19-fold from 2015 to 2024, and China's office held 79.8% of office filings.
Author: Kumar, Narendra
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7222903668
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