On October 11, WildAid and Warner Bros. Discovery premiered The Answer Is Earth to audiences in Southeast Asia. The expanded release follows the docuseries’ success with audiences across China.
Under the technical guidance of the Foreign Environmental Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the three-part documentary series follows WildAid Ambassador and A-list actor Zhang Linghe as he explores China’s shift towards renewable energy and low-carbon systems in his home province of Jiangsu.
The Southeast Asia premiere follows the series’ Earth Day 2026 debut on BILIBILI, a leading streaming platform in China. Since its release, The Answer Is Earth has reached audiences well beyond the environmental community, igniting mainstream conversation about China’s expanding deployment of renewable energy. At the height of its popularity, the documentary remained the top documentary on the platform throughout May and June, and its episodes have been viewed 21.46 million times on the platform.
The conversation has extended far beyond the documentary itself. Across social media, the hashtag #TheAnswerIsEarth and related series topics have surpassed 1.2 billion cumulative views, generating more than 40 million original posts and discussion threads.
China’s adoption of renewable energy
China has rapidly expanded its capacity to manufacture and deploy renewable energy technology at a significant scale.
The country’s energy transition is taking place against a backdrop of extraordinary growth in electricity demand, rising roughly 6 percent annually and projected to double between 2020 and 2050. For now, rapid deployment of renewable energy technology is meeting new demand but has yet to displace existing fossil fuels.
Moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy — particularly as electricity demand continues to grow — requires more than ambitious plans. It also requires people to understand the transition, see its benefits, and feel confident in the changes taking place around them.
Where communications comes in
Since launching strategic communications campaigns on climate issues in 2012, WildAid has demonstrated its ability to change social narratives and drive individual behavior on a range of issues, including transportation, food waste, single-use plastics, and home energy use.
The Answer Is Earth brings that approach to the energy transition. Rather than asking audiences to understand the transition to clean energy from a distance, the series brings viewers along as Linghe witnesses it for himself.
He also has a particularly personal connection to the subject. Before becoming an actor, Linghe studied electrical engineering. In the series, he returns to that field from a completely different perspective, visiting the people, technologies, and projects supporting China’s low-carbon development goals.
And the early response suggests that approach is resonating.
Viewers have described discovering clean energy solutions they had not noticed before and recognizing that the energy transition is connected to their own daily lives. Others have taken away the idea that individual actions matter, with one viewer writing that the series showed them “small climate actions I can take every day.”
Creating the conditions for change
Building public support does not substitute for policy or implementation, but it can create the social and political confidence needed for officials, utilities, and government ministries to implement more ambitious reforms. It can also help ensure that consumers participate in the transition where needed through their lifestyles and purchases.
The series builds that widespread public support not by highlighting climate risks, but by showing the community and personal benefits that the transition to clean energy can bring.
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