Endorse UN Info Integrity Efforts, Australian ‘Integrity Gap’ Senate Report Recommends
24, MARCH, 2026- Today the Australian Senate Select Committee on Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy published “The Integrity Gap: Restoring Trust in the Climate and Energy Debate,” a major report resulting from 11 public hearings on climate disinformation and information integrity that provides a detailed look at climate obstruction in Australia.
The Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) coalition applauds the Inquiry’s work in addressing the spread of harmful lies about climate and energy issues and celebrates the list of recommendations to address the problem, which were endorsed by Labor, Greens, Liberal, and independent party members on the Committee. Countering industrial disinformation requires community, which is why CAAD is encouraged to see that the first two of 21 recommendations are that Australia adopt the UN Global Principles on Information Integrity, and endorse the Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change that was launched at COP30. Additional recommendations include enforcing regulations on greenwashing, providing transparency in elections, funding social science research and independent media, monitoring digital threats, building media literacy into school lessons, protecting researchers from legal threats, and more.
“By taking a ‘whole of society’ approach, the “Integrity Gap” report offers a menu of options for protecting Australians from harmful lies about climate and energy,” said CAAD Communications co-chair Philip Newell. “Countries like Finland and Estonia that have long been besieged by Russian propaganda, have demonstrated how a ‘whole of society’ approach works to protect the public against deliberate campaigns of deception, whether from authoritarian petrostates or billionaire-backed disinformation campaigns. Australia would be wise to pursue these recommendations quickly, and with full funding, and other countries should apply their own locally relevant solutions.”
This Inquiry report sets a powerful precedent concerning the seriousness of disinformation networks and actors who deliberately spread false climate narratives that undermine the public demand for climate action and put lives and communities at risk. National-level investigative scrutiny can expose and disrupt these networks, strengthen accountability, and ensure the public has access to accurate, life-saving information.
Following two years after a major US Bicameral report on the fossil fuel industry’s “Denial, Disinformation, and Doublespeak,” the Australian Senate Select Committee on Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy’s report illustrates that climate lies are not only a US phenomenon, and that legislatures around the world should take notice so they too can begin defending their citizens against harmful false climate content.
As the Australian report recommends, joining the UN’s Global Principles and Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change are a good first two steps to join the growing global community committed to creating a more honest information environment.
