Climate disinformation and information integrity are on the agenda at the UN climate summit for the first time this year.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opened COP30 on Monday in the Amazonian city of Belem with a call for world leaders to “defeat” climate deniers.
“We live in an era in which obscurantists reject scientific evidence and attack institutions. It is time to deliver yet another defeat to denialism,” Lula said, adding that COP30 will be the “COP of truth” in an era of “fake news and misrepresentation”.
In the lead-up to COP30, UN Secretary-General António Guterres also put the fight against climate disinformation in the spotlight. He said the world must “fight mis- and disinformation, online harassment and greenwashing.”
“Scientists and researchers should never fear telling the truth,” Guterres added.
On Wednesday, the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change launched its Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change at the Belem summit. It is the first time states have formally committed to information integrity and fighting back against climate disinformation.
Why does it matter?
The world was at a “critical juncture where two of humanity’s most pressing challenges have become quite dangerously intertwined,” Charlotte Scaddan, senior advisor on information integrity for UN Global Communications, said at the launch of the declaration.
She added that a lack of trust in information was a “deeply concerning trend” around the world, with climate change being “weaponised” as a wedge issue to polarise entire societies and undermine democratic processes.
“The winners in this disinformation economy…are fossil fuel interests, they are certain political actors and they are digital influencers online who are monetising outrage and lies.”
Climate disinformation surged ahead of COP30, according to a report from Climate Action Against Disinformation and the Observatory for Information Integrity. It found a 267 per cent increase in COP-related disinformation between July and September this year. Keywords related to the UN climate summit appeared 14,000 times alongside words like “failure”, “catastrophe”, “disaster” and “joke”.
Earlier on Wednesday, hundreds of civil society organisations, individuals, Indigenous groups, and global leaders signed an open letter calling for national governments to champion a strong, ambitious, and mandatory decision at COP30 to uphold information integrity.
Signatories include Paris Agreement architect Christiana Figueres, of the European Climate Foundation Laurence Tubiana, Climate Action Network International, and 350.org.
The letter says that the degradation and pollution of the information ecosystem is not just a climate crisis but is a “multi-faceted global emergency”.
It points to recent studies by the International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) and Climate Social Science Network,which show that organised climate obstruction activities are “actively delaying the human response to the crisis, directly sabotaging international cooperation, making the Paris Agreement goals unattainable, and putting the lives of millions at risk.”
What have countries committed to?
Nations signing the declaration commit to tackling false and misleading information about climate change.
There are six commitments in total, including ensuring climate information is accurate while protecting free speech, supporting independent media to report accurately on environmental issues, making evidence-based information accessible to everyone and building capacity to identify threats to information integrity.
The declaration also calls on the private sector to commit to integrity of information on climate change in their business practices and ensure transparent, human rights-responsible advertising practices.
“In endorsing this Declaration, we reaffirm our shared responsibility to ensure that societies around the world are empowered with the knowledge and information they need to act urgently and decisively in the face of the climate crisis,” it concludes
So far, it has been signed by 12 countries – Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Uruguay.
What is the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change?
The Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change is a partnership between the Brazilian government, the UN and UNESCO that aims to combat climate disinformation. It was announced at the G20 Leaders Summit in Rio de Janeiro in November 2024.
“Without access to reliable information about climate disruption, we can never hope to overcome it,” UNESCO’s Director-General Audrey Azoulay said at its launch.
“Through this initiative, we will support the journalists and researchers investigating climate issues, sometimes at great risk to themselves, and fight the climate-related disinformation running rampant on social media.”
The initiative is backed by member countries such as Brazil, Chile, Denmark, France, Morocco, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Uruguay.
Four countries have also just joined as new members – Belgium, Canada, Finland and Germany – bringing its total membership of states to 13.