Climate misinformation turning crisis into catastrophe, report says | Climate crisis

Disinformation of the crawling climate transforms the crisis into a disaster, according to the authors of a new report.

He noted that climate action was obstructed and delayed by false and deceptive information from fossil fuel companies, right-wing politicians and certain nation states. The report, from the International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE), systematically examined 300 studies.

The researchers found that the denial of climate has evolved towards campaigns focused on the discreditation of solutions, such as the false allegations according to which renewable energies have caused the recent power failure in Spain.

Robots and online trolls amplify a lot of false stories, say the researchers, playing a key role in promoting climatic lies. Experts also report that political leaders, civil servants and regulatory agencies are increasingly targeted in order to delay climate action.

Climate disinformation – The term used by the report for deliberate lies and inadvertently – is increasingly worrying. Last Thursday, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change, Elisa Morgera, called for disinformation and greenwashing by the fossil fuels industry to be criminalized. On Saturday, Brazil, host of the next COP30 CLIMATE SUMMIT, will rally nations behind a separate United Nations initiative to suppress climate disinformation.

“This is a major problem,” said Dr. Klaus Jensen, of the University of Copenhagen, who co-friendship Ipie. “If we do not have the right information available, how are we going to vote for the right causes and politicians, and how will politicians translate clear evidence in the necessary action? Unfortunately, I think the [bad actors] are always very, very active and probably have the upper hand. »»

Jensen added: “We are about five years old to reduce emissions by half and until 2050 to become carbon neutral. Without the right information, we are not going to get there. Thus, the climate crisis results in a climate disaster is possible, unless we manage the problem of integrity of climatic information.”

Morgera said in his report last week that countries must “define” information systems, after decades of disinformation of the powerful fossil fuel industry.

She said states should “criminalize disinformation and false declarations (greenwashing) by the fossil fuels industry” and “criminalize the media and advertising companies to amplify disinformation and disinformation by fossil fuels”. The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, called in June 2024 for the prohibition of advertising of fossil fuel companies, describing the companies of “climate chaos”.

The UN is conducting an international effort called the global initiative for the integrity of information on climate change. Brazil will call on countries to strengthen measures to combat climate in climate negotiations in Bonn, Germany, with the United Kingdom, France, Chile, Morocco and others already registered on the initiative. Audrey Azoulay, CEO of UNESCO, said: “Climate disinformation [is] Run ramps on social networks. »»

The IPIE report is a complete evaluation of which produces climate disinformation, how they propagate it, what impact it has and how it can be combined. He concludes: “Drum information has undermined public confidence in climate science and other key social institutions. This information integrity crisis intensifies and exacerbates the climate crisis. ”

The disinformation varies from industry promoting fossil gas as a “low -carbon fuel” to bizarre conspiracy theories such as forest fires in southern California this year was planned by officials to destroy children’s traffic tunnels.

Among the conclusions, there is that the fossil fuels industry has embarked on a “double deception” of the public, first denying the reality of climate change, masking its responsibility and obstructing climate action, and, secondly, the deployment of Greenwash to represent itself as a lasting environmental enterprise. The report indicates that other sectors have also favored climate disinformation: American electricity companies, animal agriculture, airlines, tourism and fast food.

Donald Trump, who called the climate science “a giant hoax” and “bullshit”, is identified as a key influencer, “whose logical errors, unfounded affirmations and the screening of conclusions were heavily” republished by other social media users, including many Bot accounts. The report indicates that Russian intelligence has used troll farms to disinfuse disinformation on climate change.

However, Jensen said the problem was deeper than social media. “Industry and conservative thoughts actually target disinformation about key people who will make decisions. These links are particularly disturbing because it is something that approaches a conspiracy. ”

In the European context, right -wing populist parties “actively contravene climate science,” said the report, including AFD in Germany, Vox in Spain and the national rally in France. The media with conservative or right political ideologies give priority and the amplification of denial, skepticism and conspiracy theories concerning climate change, indicates the report.

Measures to combat climate disinformation include regulations aimed at improving the moderation of content by social media companies, as in the EU Digital Services law, and to oblige fossil fuel companies to make standardized declarations of their emissions. Jensen said legal affairs against providers of climate disinformation were already underway. In the longer term, improving climate education would allow citizens to identify disinformation.

Jensen also said that more research was necessary because studies to date were massively on English -language disinformation and Western nations, with, for example, a single study on the 300 focusing on Africa.