Briefings

Briefing: Canadian Wildfire Disinformation

9 July 2025

Wildfire season has started in Canada. Just like in previous years, disinformation is also spreading. Overlapping narratives, mostly put forward by right wing voices, build on perceptions of government failure from the recent Canadian election.Social media accounts and the media, many with ties to fossil fuels, blame non-natural causes, discredit ‘the left’ and criticise the government.These narratives underplay the role of climate change in the wildfires, distract from and block action to the wildfires right now, and make climate policies that would mitigate future wildfires harder to implement.Based on previous findings, this disinformation is, sadly, as predictable as the wildfires themselves. To preserve the integrity of its information ecosystem, Canadian policy makers need to enact strong laws to reduce disinformation and greenwashing, including:

  • Acknowledging fossil fuel industry-backed climate disinformation as a major threat damaging the information ecosystem, hindering climate action and policy, risking public safety and health, the global economy, and further widening societal and political divides.
  • Preventing greenwashing in advertisements through enforcing  Canada’s recently revised Competition Act, which requires businesses to substantiate environmental claims.
  • Adopting a scientific and robust definition of climate disinformation,in line with the United Nations and UNESCO’s Global Initiative for Information Integrity.
  • Denouncing the monetization of climate disinformation, to discourage  tech companies and climate-denying content creators from profiting or amplifying such content, weakening the financial incentive for disinformer networks.
  • Requiring that large online platforms produce and resource transparent plans and reporting to mitigate climate disinformation, plus allowing researchers access to all data needed to conduct research that contributes to the detection, identification, and understanding of systemic climate disinformation risks, as well as to the assessment of adequacy, efficiency, and impacts of risk mitigation measures taken.