Climate Information Integrity Summit Sets Stage for COP30 Action

Brasília, Brazil – March 26, 2025 – Yesterday, over 120 key actors from governments, multilateral organizations, and local and international non-profit organizations convened in Brasília for the Climate Information Integrity Summit to discuss concrete steps towards safeguarding the integrity of climate information in the lead-up to COP30.

The high-level event, organized by FALA, the Conscious Advertising Network, and the  Climate Action Against Disinformation coalition, heard from over 30 leading international and national voices. These experts shared their experiences and perspectives on the current challenges of information ecosystems that obstruct effective climate action. The discussions focused on developing a clear pathway to ensure climate information integrity, with COP30 identified as a pivotal moment for significant progress.

Key Commitments:

• Brazil, the host of COP30, announced their commitment to prioritize information integrity at the upcoming climate summit (COP30) and to expand their efforts in leading the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change. The Brazilian chapter of the initiative is also launching today (26 March 2025).
• The European Union (EU) warmly welcomed the groundbreaking Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change and announced they are working through the processes for official commitment and financial contributions.
• The United Kingdom (UK) reiterated their commitment as a founding member of the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change.

Key Outcomes and Pathway to Ensure Information Integrity

The Summit fostered a consensus among speakers and participants on several points:

• Information Integrity as a Foundational Prerequisite: Participants agreed that the information integrity is not only essential for robust climate action but also for the protection of fundamental human rights, democracy, and freedom of speech.
• The Crucial Role of Policymakers: The Summit firmly established the critical role of lawmakers in fostering transparency and accountability among media, social media and technology companies, emphasizing their responsibility to enact policies and regulations focused on protecting information integrity, individual rights (including the right to access information), and preventing the manipulation of public discourse through disinformation. Regulative measures can safeguard the digital public space and protect human rights and democratic processes.
• Addressing Threats to Climate Defenders: The urgent need to protect environmental defenders, climate and other scientists, and Indigenous peoples, who face immense pressure and threats due to the proliferation of disinformation, was underscored as a critical and pressing matter, coupled with the need to act intersectionality against an opposition attacking climate, LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, and other issues and marginalized populations in a coordinated fashion.
• Advertising Accountability: The current business model and economics of advertising is financing online hate and disinformation.  Big tech, PR industry, and advertisers are financiers of disinformation which derails climate action, human rights, and democracies. Also, the fossil fuel sector uses the opaque advertising business model to protect their vested interests. The advertising industry should start contributing to information integrity not financing hate and disinformation.
• COP30: A Global Opportunity for Action: The Summit concluded that COP30 presents a unique global opportunity for multilateral cooperation on information integrity. Participants called for the official outcome of COP30 to explicitly acknowledge the threat to information integrity posed by vested interests, including carbon-intensive sectors, and to clearly mandate the roles and responsibilities of both Parties and information ecosystem actors – big tech, media companies, PR companies and advertisers –  in safeguarding climate information.

The Climate Information Integrity Summit marks a significant step forward in building momentum and fostering collaboration to protect the information landscape vital for effective climate action. The commitments made and the clear pathway identified pave the way for tangible progress at COP30 and beyond.

Selected Quotes from the Summit:

Nina Santos, Head of the Special Advisory Office at the Secretariat of Social Communication of the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil and Deputy Secretary at the Secretariat for Digital Policies: 

• The Brazilian government has been working tirelessly in the defense of the agenda of information integrity. We are launching tomorrow, the Brazilian chapter of the global initiative of climate change information integrity. We want to have in Brazil a network of researchers, organizations and centers mobilized around this subject.

Elisa Morgera Special Rapporteur on Climate Change, United Nations on Human Rights: 

• I decided to focus one of my thematic reports to the UN General Assembly on public access to information on climate change in human rights, because that is really the precondition for the exercise and protection of every other human right which is affected by climate change. And in fact without that information we are not able, none of us is able, to protect life and health on the basis of a full evidence-base of what is now foreseeable and predictable harm for individuals for communities for children. 

Maria Buzdogan, Counsellor, Economy, Industry and Digital Transformation at the Delegation of the European Union to Brazil: 

• We Salute Brazil’s leadership in this in this realm and we think the global initiative is both welcome and timely because it brings critical attention to the growing impact of climate disinformation which is reflected already in undermining public trust and polarizing other debate on the topic which in turn can and it has led to stalling urgently needed climate action. 
• The EU has been approached like other countries by Brazilian authorities to join this global initiative and we are clearly very much aligned with the objectives of this initiative to address disinformation on climate change and enhance climate change awareness and action. My colleagues in Brussels are exploring the feasibility of possible modalities under very very complex EU financial rules to contribute funds to the global fund. 

Paulo Sergio Domingues, Justice, Superior Court of Justice of Brazil:

• I don’t like the term “fake news.” Because it contains the word news, it ends up legitimizing something that isn’t news at all. I prefer to call it what it really is: a lie. 
• I’ve been a judge for many years, and every day I see people presenting different versions of the same facts—not out of malice, but because they have different perceptions of the world. But here, it’s a different story. Here, we’re dealing with deliberate disinformation. We’re talking about lies and distortions designed to generate profit and political advantage.
• Those who profit from falsehoods are the ones most interested in spreading them. Today, every person is a newspaper and their own editor. Paid influencers, coordinated to maximize engagement, act as a highly effective form of advertising—and they’re a serious concern.

Eliesio Marubo, activist and legal counsel for Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley: 

• I come from a region where organized crime prevails, where the authorities are negligent – the political world is deeply connected with organized crime. This led to a deliberate denial in 2022 of the importance of the Amazon and environmental issues, which we had been discussing globally. The result of this is that, in a very dramatic way, of the 5 people who were threatened, 3 were murdered. Only 2 are alive to tell the story. And unfortunately, I am one of those people, who dramatically continues to defend my territory, defend the environment, working as an Indigenous activist and also for environmental causes, making sure that people and the world understand the importance of telling the true story.

Thais Lazzeri, founder of FALA:

• Brazil will soon host two major events designed to weaken COP30 and the climate movement — one connected to sectors of agribusiness and the other to the far right, with international support. Both will take place in the Amazon. This same Amazon where over 88% of elected mayors didn’t mention environmental issues in their campaigns. Where exploitative agendas continue to advance. Where 90% of deforestation between 1985 and 2024 happened to create pastureland. Where over half of Brazil’s Indigenous population lives — one of the most targeted groups on digital platforms.

• Many here don’t know what it means to wake up to a grave and a cross dug beside your home — a chilling reminder of the cost of being a defender, in one of the countries that kills the most environmental defenders.
• That’s why talking about climate information integrity right before COP is so urgent. We’ve been watching how digital platforms are dismantling their content moderation and fact-checking policies — let’s call it what it is — human rights policies. And that’s making social media — and real life — more hostile for many of us, and for those we love. We can’t just watch all of this unfold from our phone screens. 
• And that’s why we’re here: To stay mobilized and vigilant, because rights must always be defended. To push for transparency and regulation, in a battle of unequal power and resources. To build bridges and collective solutions, with global ambition — even the ones that don’t exist yet. To imagine new futures. And to dream together. When my daughter was born, I asked the world to be kind to her. And today, I’m asking you. 

Imran Ahmed, CEO, Center for Countering Digital Hate:

• Social media today isn’t a free exchange of ideas, it’s a polluted space where outrage and clicks outweigh the truth. Real freedom demands informed citizens. When powerful voices drown out the truth, that’s  not freedom, it’s digital feudalism, where a few power voices dominate while the majority remain unheard.
• Let us not be timid. Let us not be tricked or silenced by billionaires pretending to champion freedom. This is a fight we must win. Not tomorrow. Not next year. But right now. For the future of democracy, for the survival of our planet, for my daughter, my family, and yours. For all of us.
• One of the things that we found in our research is that almost every time we see the super producers of disinformation of climate denial, they’re revenue sharing with the platforms. The platforms are paying them to produce this content that keeps people engaged on the platform and allows ads to be shown. That is a bananas system.

Charlotte Scaddan, Senior Advisor on Information Integrity, United Nations:  

• The Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change is an exciting example of the sort of multistakeholder action we need on information integrity and on climate. We’re looking to fund research so that we can have a better understanding of our information environment, so that we can have a more strategic approach to action. 
• “We’re asking for human rights responsible advertising… Demand transparency, and demand data… Know where your ad dollars are going.” 

Marie Santini, Director and Founder, Netlab – UFRJ: 

• Disinformation doesn’t scale only through digital platforms. We need to talk about the infrastructure of the communication market. There’s an entire ecosystem and economic interests propping up this entire logic. So disinformation is always serving political interests, economic interests — or both.”

Notes for Editors:

About CAAD: A global coalition of over 70 leading climate and anti-disinformation organisations demanding robust, coordinated and proactive strategies to deal with the scale of the threat of climate misinformation and disinformation.

About FALA: FALA is an award-winning Brazilian impact studio dedicated to social change through storytelling and strategic communication. Our original project, Lies Have a Price, exposes the costs of the climate disinformation supply chain, advancing information integrity, media literacy, climate engagement, and knowledge production.

About CAN: CAN (Conscious Advertising Network) is a global non-profit uniting brands, agencies, and civil society to reshape advertising. They champion ethical practices, transparency, and inclusivity, aiming to create a sustainable industry that benefits everyone by tackling issues like industry waste and human rights.

• Photos and Videos from the Summit are accessible here – all visuals are created by Alex Amaral – the official photographer for the Climate Information Integrity Summit (by FALA, CAAD & CAN).
• The full list of speakers is here

For media inquiries and questions, contact Phil Newell, CAAD Communications co-chair: [email protected] 

The press release is also available in Portuguese here.