Coverage of climate change on the major broadcast networks declined 45 percent from 2017 to 2018. The programs aired a combined 142 minutes of climate coverage in 2018 -- less than two and a half hours. In 2017, the programs spent a combined 260 minutes on climate change. The decline would have been even steeper if not for the December 30 episode of NBC's Meet the Press, which devoted more than 46 minutes to discussing climate change.

This large drop occurred despite 2018 providing plenty of compelling reasons to cover climate change: extreme weather affecting much of the globe; new scientific research raising alarm bells; landmark climate reports being published by both the United Nations and the U.S. government; and the Trump administration continuing to undermine climate protections.

NBC was the only network to air more minutes of climate coverage in 2018 than in 2017 -- an increase of 23 percent. The other broadcast networks each spent less time on climate change in 2018 than they did the year before.

ABC was by far the worst performer. In 2018, the network's nightly news and Sunday morning political shows discussed climate change for less than 11 minutes total, down from 57 minutes in 2017 -- a decline of 81 percent. ABC also aired the fewest number of segments that discussed climate change -- just 12 total for the year. This continues a long trend: ABC has aired less climate coverage than CBS and NBC every year since 2013.

CBS' coverage of climate change fell by 56 percent, from nearly 98 minutes in 2017 to just under 43 minutes in 2018. But CBS did better than the other networks in 2018 on the number of segments in which it addressed climate change -- 33 total on its nightly news and Sunday morning political programs.

NBC outpaced its counterparts in time devoted to climate change, spending 78 minutes on the issue in 2018, up from 63.5 minutes in 2017 -- an increase of 23 percent. But more than half of its 2018 climate coverage -- nearly 46.5 minutes -- came from a single episode of Meet the Press on December 30, which marked the first time that a Sunday morning political show dedicated an entire episode to climate change. Without that episode, NBC would have aired less coverage than in 2017 and lagged behind CBS in the time spent on climate change in 2018. Overall, NBC discussed climate change in 30 segments on its nightly news and Sunday morning political programs in 2018.

Fox News Sunday aired a little more than 10 minutes of climate coverage in 2018, down from almost 42 minutes in 2017 -- a drop of 75 percent. More than seven minutes of its coverage came from one episode on November 25 in which host Chris Wallace and guests discussed the National Climate Assessment. The show aired a total of five climate segments in 2018.

ABC’s two major news programs -- World News Tonight and This Week With George Stephanopoulos, which together air for four and a half hours each week -- spent almost as little time on climate change as Fox News Sunday, which airs for just an hour each week.

For more on Sunday morning political shows' coverage of climate change in 2018, see our recent study.

The four broadcast networks featured 112 people in their news segments on climate change in 2018, excluding the networks' anchors, hosts, and correspondents. The people featured were invited on as guests, shown speaking in video footage, or quoted. The vast majority of them were white men.

Of the 112 people featured in the networks' climate segments, 102 were white, or 91 percent. Only 10 were people of color, or 9 percent. In 2017, 10 out of 222 guests in climate segments were people of color, or 5 percent.

ABC featured the fewest people of color in its climate coverage. The network's nightly news and Sunday morning political programs did not interview any guests of color. The only person of color featured was Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Daryl Osby, an African-American, who was shown in footage speaking at a press conference in the wake of catastrophic wildfires in California on November 23 on World News Tonight.

Ninety-one of the 112 people featured were men, or 81 percent. Only 21 were women, or 19 percent. In 2017, 34 out of 222 guests were women, or 15 percent.

CBS featured the fewest women in its climate coverage. The network didn't interview any women for its nightly news or Sunday morning climate segments. It only aired brief footage of a speech by German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the January 25 episode of CBS Evening News.

Just one woman of color was interviewed about climate change on any of the networks in 2018. New York Times journalist Helene Cooper, who is African-American, participated in a panel discussion that addressed climate change on NBC's Meet the Press on November 25.

The person featured most often in the networks' climate coverage was President Donald Trump: 10 climate segments included footage of him (and in nine of them, he was dismissive of climate science; more on that below).

The longest interview with a single guest about climate change, running more than nine minutes, went to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the December 30 episode of NBC's Meet the Press.