Governments Should Act Now to Curb Climate Disinformation

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    Governments Should Act Now to Curb Climate Disinformation

    As the world convenes for the COP 29 climate negotiations in Baku, the urgent need to address the climate crisis has never been clearer. Yet, the spread of disinformation continues to undermine and delay our collective ability to act, jeopardising progress at crucial negotiations and the upcoming G20 Summit in Brazil. Climate disinformation, waged by vested interests, undermines climate action and puts our collective future at risk. Our information ecosystem is being damaged, and those responsible must be held accountable.

    We, the undersigned educational, climate and information integrity organisations, including the members of the Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) coalition and climate experts, call on governments worldwide to take immediate and decisive action to address this crisis. With the COP negotiations setting the stage for global climate action and the G20 Summit offering a crucial platform for international cooperation, it is imperative that governments recognize the threat of climate disinformation and take concrete steps to ensure information integrity, paving the way for meaningful climate action. Governments also need to encourage social media companies, advertising technology providers, and broadcast and publishing companies to be accountable and stop acting as enablers to planetary destruction.

    Holding Platforms Accountable

    Specifically, governments must encourage these companies to:
    1. Acknowledge the threat: Publicly recognize climate disinformation as a major threat to the information ecosystem, hindering climate action and policy, and risking public safety and health.
    2. Adopt a universal definition: Adopt a definition of climate disinformation as deceptive or misleading online behaviour that:
      • Undermines public understanding of the existence or impacts of climate change, the unequivocal human influence on climate change, and the need for corresponding urgent action to reduce global warming emissions (mitigation) and prepare for the current impacts and those we must expect (adaptation), according to the IPCC scientific consensus and in line with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement;
      • Misrepresents scientific data, including by omission or cherry-picking, to erode trust in climate science, climate-focused institutions, experts, and solutions; or
      • Falsely publicises efforts as supportive of climate goals that in fact contribute to climate warming or contravene the scientific consensus on mitigation or adaptation, including greenwashing.
    3. Produce, publicise and resource a transparent company plan to stop the spread of climate disinformation
    4. Increase transparency and reporting
    5. Have transparent and open pathways for researchers to access data
    6. Prevent monetization of climate disinformation
    7. Implement platform-wide inoculation efforts to increase the resilience of users to false or misleading content before they are exposed to it
    8. Ensure strong labour policies
    9. Address the impact of emerging technologies such as AI.

    As the recently published CAAD Report – Extreme Weather, Extreme Content: How Big Tech Facilitates Climate Disinformation In a World on the Brink – demonstrated, climate disinformation is rampant and continuously hindering climate action. Various tactics such as fossil fuel advertising, which UN Secretary-General António Guterres denounced in his World Environment Day address, are still widely used. This manipulation, often aided by big tech, PR firms, advertising firms and media outlets, demands a decisive response.

    Governments should implement strong measures to address climate disinformation and embrace the UN’s recently published Global Principles For Information Integrity. These principles, launched in June 2024, provide a comprehensive framework for addressing the global crisis of misinformation and disinformation, which is fueling conflict, threatening democracy and human rights, and undermining public health and climate action. By adopting these principles, governments can foster a healthier and safer online environment that supports informed decision-making and enables effective climate action.

    The Time to Act is Now

    The climate crisis demands urgent action. Disinformation distorts our understanding of reality, putting people and organisations at risk and harming public policies. We cannot let these falsehoods weaken climate action and hinder progress. We call on governments worldwide to lead the way in fostering a truthful and informed public discourse, so we can build a more sustainable future together.

    Read the press release here: EN / PT-BR

    Read our COP open letter here.

    Signed

    Organisations (in alphabetical order)

    Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE) / ACT Climate Labs / Avaaz Badvertising  /C40 Cities / Center for Countering Digital Hate / Check My Ads / ClimaInfo/ Climate Discourse Observatory / Coletivo Brasil de Comunicação Social Comms Declare / Conscious Advertising Network /Corporate Europe Observatory / CTNEAC/FBMC / Divergent Dispatches / ecoAmerica / E3G / FALA / Fórum Informação & Democracia ta / Friends of the Earth / George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication / Global Action Plan / GreenLatinos / Greenpeace Brazil / Greenpeace Roots / Grupo de pesquisa Mídia, conhecimento e meio ambiente: olhares da Amazônia (UFRR) / InfluenceMap /Instituto Democracia em Xeque / Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) / Instituto Novos Paradigmas / Instituto O Mundo Que Queremos / Instituto Talanoa / Kairos Fellowship / LACLIMA / Laboratório de Humanidades Digitais da UFBA / New Weather Institute / Projeto Saúde & Alegria / Purpose / Observatório do Clima / QuotaClimat/ Reclame Fossielvrij (Fossil Free Advertising) / Rede Nacional de Combate à Desinformação Rede Climatizando / Reporters Sans Frontières / School of the Environment, University of Toronto / Social Tipping Point Coalitie / Stop Funding Heat / The Ecosecurity Council / The YEARS Project / Union of Concerned Scientists / WWF-Brazil

    Scientists / Experts (in alphabetical order)

    Andrea Dutton / Andrew Simms / Alan Robock / Bob Ward / Brandi Geurkink /  Chris Field / David K Rosner / Don Wuebbles / Ed Maibach / Eric Post / Fredrick Ogenga / Geoffrey Supran / Gernot Wagner / Klaus Bruhn Jensen / Jennifer Jacquet / Joel Clement / John Cook / John P Holdren / Joshua Halpern / Julie Dermansky / Jusen Asuka / Heather Ford / Katharine Mach / Kevin Trenberth /  Lucia D. Simonelli / Marcelo Knobel / Max Boykoff / Maxine Savitz / Michael Mann / Naomi Oreskes / Neri Barros de Almeida / Pallavi Sethi /Peter Frumhoff / Ricardo Abramovay / Robert Perkowitz / Rod Schoonover / Scott Denning / Shawn Otto / Stephan Lewandowsky / Steve Easterbrook / Thelma Krug