Comedians, entrepreneurs, conductors, roofers or even influencers, they are active in the fight against climate change. For L’Express, students from the Institut Pratique du journalisme Paris Dauphine set out to meet small and large players in climate action in France.
When Benjamin Martinie launches on YouTube, he embarks his subscribers on the other side of the world by making them discover Iran, Georgia, or even Lebanon. Internet users, inspired by his channel Tolt Around The World, fly away in turn, with the ensuing CO2 emissions. “Like many, I underestimated the impact a flight could have on the environment,” he explains. While he often takes the floor to talk about the climate to his relatives and his community, they send him back to the contradiction between his way of life and his values.
Arrested, the youtuber learns about the environmental impact of aviation. “I said to myself: it’s no longer possible, I have to find solutions to stop flying.” With a Paris-New York return flight, a passenger emits 1 tonne of CO2. In one trip, the individual will have already consumed half of the carbon emissions recommended per year to limit the effects of global warming according to Ademe, the ecological transition agency. In 2020, Benjamin Martinie therefore decided to change course: he took his subscribers by train across France and Europe, encouraging them to use low-carbon means of transport.
Their community awaits them at the turn
This awareness does not have consensus in the world of influence. It is, however, encouraged by Internet users who question content creators about what they produce – whether it is to win trips for their subscribers to the other side of the world or to encourage them to over-consume with blows of promotional codes.
Collective Pay Your Influence understood this well: he often challenges influencers in the comments of their posts. By explaining that we must not make paid partnerships with major polluters such as fast fashion companies, or that we must refrain from promoting a way of life incompatible with the climate emergency – among other things, take the plane to get to the Cannes Film Festival – the collective educates content creators as well as their subscribers.
“Today, influencers feel obliged to justify themselves on certain life choices because they know that it will not be well received by their audience”, explains Amélie Deloche, the co-founder of Paye Ton Influence. According to her, the more content creators there are who talk about ecology, the greater the impact on the environment. “Influencers watch what they do with each other. They are the most impressionable people in the world.”
Influencers plant the seed
Since the networks are able to reach millions of people with the click of a button, some influencers have taken to using them to inform their community about the climate. Victoria Vidal, also known as the pseudonym vicplusgreen on Instagram, is the proof. She launched her account to raise awareness of environmental issues among her subscribers and uses her influence to show that it is possible to live more soberly, by sharing her vegetarian recipes for example. “It has an impact. I get thank you messages every week.”
Very quickly, she received many partnership requests. She learns about brand ethics, sorts it out, and avoids doing more than one collaboration a week – while reminding her followers that they shouldn’t buy products, no matter how ethical, if they don’t need it. Today, she depends exclusively on these collaborations to pay her rent.
This economy mode is not perfect. Even if her partnerships are intended to be ethical, Victoria Vidal still encourages her subscribers to consume by selling them products. Asked about the paradox between her promo codes and her ecological awareness, she replies: “When people who have bought Zara all their lives start an ecological approach, they don’t know where to go. It’s up to us to show them alternatives.”
It should also be remembered that the content posted online, in addition to encouraging users to consume, also has a carbon footprint. According to Ademe, watching an hour of video on your phone every day for a year in 4G emits the same CO2 rate as a car driving 125 km (you can also calculate the carbon footprint of your digital uses on the Ademe website).
A mode of influence difficult to generalize
To become an eco-responsible influencer, you have to make choices. “Either you admit to yourself that you are not going to have many partnerships, or you work on the side,” says Ruby Pigeon. With more than 50,000 followers, she promotes her upcycling brand (a process that repurposes unused products) on Instagram, which sells clothes made from fabric scraps. On her account, she posts sewing tutorials and shows her followers that they too can create their own clothes. This content does not bring her any money, so she finances it through her paid collaborations with other brands.
But in order not to have to depend exclusively on these partnerships, the content creator must juggle between her job as an influencer, entrepreneur, consultant and stylist. “Every day, I refuse collaborations, but it’s a privilege, she admits. If you’re an influencer and you don’t have time to take another job because you have to take care of your children, This is an other story.”
In reality, few content creators are willing to make these sacrifices. However, the IPCC, the intergovernmental organization on climate change, challenges them in a report published last year: “social influencers and opinion leaders can promote the adoption of technologies, behaviors and modes low-carbon lifestyle”. To support young people in the ecological transition, the IPCC is counting on them.