Explore the latest climate disinfo publications!

COP30 has officially become the first climate summit in history to elevate information integrity into a formal diplomatic priority, transforming President Lula’s promise of a “COP of Truth” into a concrete international commitment, as published by EuroNews.

1. A New Global Coalition for Truth

At the summit, 13 countries endorsed the new Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change, the first intergovernmental framework to counter climate disinformation. Signatories include: Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Uruguay. 

This forms the core of the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change, a partnership led by Brazil + UN + UNESCO, first announced at the G20.

2. Climate Disinformation Recognized as a Global Emergency

Lula opened COP30 calling for a “defeat of denialism” (Noticias Ambientales).

UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that climate mis/disinformation, greenwashing, harassment, and online manipulation are now actively obstructing global climate action (France24).

Recent analysis confirms the scale of the threat:

  • 267% surge in COP-related disinformation before the summit

  • keywords like “COP30” paired 14,000+ times with “failure,” “catastrophe,” “joke”

OII found up to 17 million views of climate lies in a single day during COP30.

3. Civil Society Demands Mandatory Action

An unprecedented open letter signed by climate leaders (Christiana Figueres, Laurence Tubiana), Indigenous groups, NGOs, and researchers demanded that COP30 adopt a strong, mandatory decision on information integrity

The letter cites new findings from IPIE and the Climate Social Science Network showing that organized obstruction campaigns are delaying climate action and sabotaging cooperation.

4. Brazil’s Leadership Anchors a New Governance Model

Brazil and its partners  launched the Climate Information Integrity Dossier and highlighted that the “new climate denial is economic.”

Brazil’s presidency framed information integrity as “truth infrastructure”, essential to protecting climate policy from manipulation.

COP30’s final decision also acknowledges the need to counter climate disinformation for the first time in a UN climate text.

 

Investigators have warned of coordinated AI-generated content campaigns spreading false or polarising narratives ahead of COP30 deploying synthetic videos, cloned voices, and automated networks to erode trust in climate science and international negotiations.

According to The Standard, these AI-manipulated narratives aimed to polarise debate digitally before the summit opened, raising concerns that artificial amplification could distort public perception and weaken climate diplomacy at a decisive moment.

Newer analysis from The Conversation confirms that AI was not only a threat vector but also a central theme inside COP30 itself. For the first time, “science, technology and artificial intelligence” was formally integrated as a core pillar of the conference agenda. Sessions highlighted both the opportunities and dangers: while AI is powering emissions-tracking initiatives like Climate TRACE and enhancing early-warning systems for floods, fires, and extreme weather, delegates stressed that the same technologies can turbo-charge climate disinformation.

A new investigation by CAAD reveals an unprecedented wave of digital greenwashing by major oil and gas companies ahead of COP30, with thousands of targeted ads attempting to sway public opinion in Brazil, the host country of the summit, at a critical political moment.

Key Findings:

  • Explosive growth in Brazil-focused ads: A 2,900% increase in Google Ads targeting Brazil between January and October 2025.

  • Petrobras leads the push: The company ran 665 Google Ads, accounting for nearly 70% of all fossil fuel ads shown in Brazil this year.

  • Huge October spike: Companies including BP (+1,369%), Saudi Aramco (+469%), ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, and others multiplied their ads dramatically just weeks before COP30.

  • Shifting the narrative: Campaigns portrayed oil companies as climate-friendly “energy transition leaders,” despite Petrobras allocating 90% of its 2025–2029 investment plan to oil and gas expansion.

  • Political impact: The advertising blitz coincided with a rise in public support for Amazon oil exploration projects — particularly those pending regulatory approval.

  • Regulatory implications: The report urges strong action against greenwashing, enhanced transparency in digital advertising, and even tobacco-style restrictions on fossil fuel promotion.

 

A new analysis from the Observatory for Information Integrity (Oii) shows that COP30 faced a coordinated wave of digital disinformation, including the hashtag #FLOP30.

Oii tracked 171 misleading posts in nine days, with peaks of up to 17 million views targeting Indigenous protesters, activists, and the legitimacy of the summit.

A DeSmog investigation reveals that agribusiness giants ran an aggressive, coordinated digital PR campaign ahead of COP30, using celebrities, wellness influencers, and pop-culture figures to soften their climate image just as global scrutiny of industrial farming intensified.

What happened?
DeSmog found that major meat, pesticide, and fertilizer companies hired 195+ Brazilian influencers (more than double the previous year) to promote meat, chicken, and “sustainable agribusiness” content to hundreds of millions of Instagram followers.

Key points:

195 influencers, from models and doctors to right-wing commentators, were paid to promote Big Ag in the year before COP30.

Posts pushed health, lifestyle, and pop-culture angles, avoiding climate issues while improving brand perception.

Companies involved include JBS, Minerva, MBRF, Bayer, Syngenta, Cargill, Bunge and others, covering the whole industrial food chain.

Big Ag also launched 6,000+ Google ads and nearly 1,000 Meta ads in Brazil ahead of COP30.

The strategy aligns with efforts to downplay agriculture’s climate impact, distract from deforestation links, and push “business as usual” solutions during the summit.

Experts warn this influencer surge could shape public opinion and make the food-system transition politically harder.

At COP30, the battle over truth isn’t limited to fossil fuels. Without clear rules to separate science-based solutions from corporate spin, the summit risks becoming another stage for agribusiness greenwashing.

A DeSmog investigation exposes how major agricultural corporations are preparing to flood COP30 with campaigns portraying industrial farming as a climate “solution.”

Food and agribusiness giants are promoting offset schemes and “climate-smart” branding while continuing deforestation, fertilizer-intensive production, and methane-heavy livestock operations.

These powerful food and farming interests are adopting the same misinformation strategies once used by oil and gas companies, blurring accountability for nearly a third of global emissions and undermining genuine climate action.

DeSmog names key lobbying groups and PR agencies shaping this narrative, warning that the illusion of “sustainable agriculture” risks derailing serious mitigation efforts.

As the world gathers in Belém for COP30, the United States is living two climate realities at once.

1. Science under siege

In Washington, federal science is being muzzled: the Union of Concerned Scientists tallies more than 500 “attacks on science” this year alone, from shelving basic data to placing political gatekeepers over Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) researchers, moves that push facts out of sight when they’re most needed.

2. The architects of disinformation

It has now been exposed who wrote the Trump administration’s flawed climate report crafted to justify dismantling federal protections. The so-called “Climate Working Group” behind this report includes long-time fossil-fuel allies such as John Christy, Steven Koonin, Judith Curry, and Roy Spencer, all figures that have spent decades sowing doubt about climate science.

3. The rise of a new denial language.

Trump’s Administration has poured a new language of denial. As Grist shows, the catchphrase “Green New Scam” didn’t just land at a rally, it became a communications blueprint: scrub climate terms, hobble the datasets, then repeat a simple label until it feels true. 

4. Denial at the UN

The stage for this campaign isn’t only domestic. At the UN General Assembly, the President Trump framed climate action as a hoax and renewables as a joke claims that collide with global trends and, as Bloomberg notes, risk ceding clean-tech leadership to rivals eager to fill the gap.

5. Citizens push back

Yet the American story doesn’t end there. With the federal government stepping back, cities, states, and civil society are stepping forward: coalitions like America Is All In and a wave of NGOs say they’ll show up in Brazil to represent the majority that still wants ambition: “Trump doesn’t represent us,” as the Guardian reports. 

6. The call for truth

Around them, the international system is bracing. UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged a fight against climate disinformation and a defense of “clear-eyed” science ahead of COP30, because without trusted evidence, negotiations are just noise (France 24).

Netflix’s new documentary “The White House Effect” dives deep into the birth of America’s climate disinformation machine, tracing how political fear, fossil fuel pressure, and media manipulation derailed U.S. climate leadership three decades ago, as explained by Politico.

Through 14,000 archival clips and declassified White House memos, the film exposes how President George H.W. Bush’s early climate ambition was undermined by internal skeptics, led by Chief of Staff John Sununu, and powerful industry allies.

Why it matters:

  • Reveals the moment climate denial went mainstream in U.S. politics.
  • Shows how fossil fuel influence turned science into a partisan battlefield.
  • Draws a direct line from 1990s spin to today’s political gridlock.

Directed by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk, “The White House Effect” tells a chilling story: how one missed opportunity in Rio 1992 helped cement decades of climate inaction, and echoes through every debate today. Now streaming on Netflix.

The latest report from Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) exposes how Big Carbon, the fossil fuel industry and its allies, use disinformation to stall global climate action.

Released ahead of COP30 in Brazil, the study uncovers how misleading narratives amplified by Big Tech undermine public trust and policy progress, despite overwhelming global support for stronger climate measures.

Featuring new analysis of Brazil’s information landscape and global trends, the report highlights growing international efforts to protect information integrity in climate policy.

An investigation by DeSmog reveals how Exxon helped seed climate denial across the Global South.

Newly obtained checks and internal memos show Exxon bankrolled the Atlas Network in the late 1990s to translate denial content, fly U.S. contrarians to Latin America, and brief officials and media ahead of UN climate talks efforts aimed at weakening support for treaties from Kyoto to today’s COP30 host, Brazil.

Paper trail: Exxon sent multiple checks ($15k–$50k) to Atlas to fund seminars, Spanish translations of denial materials, and outreach to policymakers and press.

Strategic goal: Make developing countries “less inclined” to back emissions cuts by amplifying economic-cost fears and scientific doubt before key summits.

Throughline to COP30: Contemporary figures and Atlas-linked partners in Brazil echo the same playbook, framing climate action as elite hypocrisy and a threat to growth.

Bottom line: The docs suggest a long-running, coordinated effort to export U.S.-style climate obstruction abroad, shaping today’s polarized debate as COP30 looms in Belém.

In October 2025, a Paris court delivered a landmark verdict against TotalEnergies, ruling that the company had misled consumers with claims it would achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, according to Reuters.

It was the first-ever court decision applying France’s greenwashing law to an energy firm, and the first in the world to find a fossil fuel major legally liable for deceptive “net zero” marketing.

The oil giant must scrub misleading statements from its website and pay damages to environmental groups Friends of the Earth France, Greenpeace France, and Notre Affaire à Tous.

But as DeSmog reported, the verdict reaches far beyond one company. The judgment also exposes the communications machinery behind TotalEnergies’ 2021 rebrand, a multi-agency operation involving industry giants: Publicis, Havas, and WPP.

These firms crafted the “energy transition” messaging now ruled misleading, creating logos, taglines, and visuals that cast an oil company as a climate saviour. While no ad agencies were named in court, experts say the ruling sends a clear warning: those who promote false climate claims may soon share the legal risk.

The DeSmog analysis highlights how fossil fuel rebrands are part of a wider pattern of PR pollution, where creative agencies, under the banner of “sustainability storytelling,” obscure the ongoing expansion of oil and gas projects.

And the evidence of that industry-wide complicity keeps mounting. According to an investigation by Clean Creatives, 709 agencies worldwide hold more than 1,200 contracts with 388 fossil fuel companies, together worth over $7 billion annually.

Even as the UN urges agencies to drop oil clients, holding groups such as Edelman, Publicis, and WPP continue to profit from climate obstruction. Edelman alone earns nearly 6% of its global revenue from fossil fuel contracts, even while managing communications for sustainability and climate events like COP30.

Together, these revelations show how fossil fuel disinformation has evolved: from scientific denial to sophisticated narrative manipulation. Courts, campaigners, and even parts of the creative industry are now pushing back, demanding that truth, not branding, define the future of climate communication.

The Context op-ed, written by global health leaders ahead of COP30, calls for the world to finally confront fossil fuels as “the biggest threat to human health of the 21st century.” According to Dr Maria Neira, Director of Public Health and Environment at the World Health Organization, pollution from fossil-fuel combustion kills more than 7 million people each year, through respiratory and cardiovascular disease, cancers, and prenatal impacts. She warns that political disinformation and fossil-fuel lobbying continue to obscure these scientific facts, delaying vital health-based climate policies.

The authors argue that fossil-fuel expansion is incompatible with the Paris Agreement and with public health, noting that burning coal, oil, and gas contributes to 90 percent of urban air pollution and over 70 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions. They urge COP30 negotiators in Belém to adopt a “health-first” climate agenda, one that phases out fossil fuels, invests in clean energy, and protects frontline communities most exposed to pollution and extreme heat.

“Climate action is health action,” the piece concludes, warning that continued delay is not only an environmental failure but a moral and medical one.

The Kremlin has found a new way to gain power and spread propaganda: by weaponising climate change, according to a new analysis by EUvsDisinfo. 

Russia’s latest disinformation campaign targets Europe’s green transition, not out of concern for the planet, but to protect Russia’s oil profits and weaken the West.

By twisting debates around the EU’s Green Deal, pro-Kremlin media portray climate policies as “green tyranny” and “economic suicide,” aiming to erode public trust and fracture EU unity.

Key points:

  • False claims that the EU’s climate agenda is bankrupting farmers and destroying industry.
  • Accusations of “green protectionism” to pit the Global South against Europe.
  • The real goal: defend fossil fuel dominance and undermine sanctions funding the war in Ukraine.

As EUvsDisinfo notes, these climate narratives are not about the environment, they are another front in Russia’s information war against democracy and energy independence.

As extreme weather events increasingly unleash waves of climate disinformation, a new Maldita.es and AI Forensics investigation finds that YouTube and TikTok amplified misleading content after Spain’s 2024 Valencia floods.
Despite platform pledges to curb falsehoods, the study shows their systems continue to reward and spread climate misinformation.

Key findings:

  • Disinformation videos amassed over 21 million views, often more engagement than factual content.
  • YouTube videos spreading falsehoods were 48% more liked and 123% more commented on than verified content.
  • TikTok videos with climate misinformation were 85% more likely to be shared, with no warning labels applied.

The study warns that algorithmic amplification and poor enforcement of moderation rules are undermining public trust and climate action during moments of crisis.

In EBU Spotlight’s “From Climate Science to Economic Strategy” and OII Climate’s Substack post “The cost of climate lies,” experts warn that climate politics ahead of COP30 are being shaped by competing economic stories. While fossil-fuel lobbies weaponize inflation fears and “cost-of-living” rhetoric to stall decarbonization, researchers highlight that unchecked warming is already driving far greater financial and human losses.

Both analyses urge communicators to reframe the debate: the green transition isn’t a drain on economies, it’s protection against collapse. As OII Climate puts it, “the real cost isn’t what we spend to act, but what we pay when we don’t.”

In this reflective blog post, climate campaigner Kate Cell from the Union of Concerned Scientists highlights three reasons for cautious optimism as the world approaches COP30. Despite the intensifying flood of falsehoods about climate science, renewable energy, and international cooperation, Cell argues that “the defenders of truth are better organized than ever before.”

According to UCS, three key shifts are reshaping the fight against disinformation:

  1. Greater transparency from tech platforms, driven by public pressure and regulation under the EU’s Digital Services Act, which is beginning to reveal how harmful narratives spread online.
  2. New partnerships between fact-checkers, journalists, and civil society, improving the speed and reach of corrections—especially during major climate events.
  3. Emerging legal frameworks that hold corporations accountable for deception, from greenwashing lawsuits to truth-in-advertising standards at both EU and national levels.

Cell contrasts today’s organized global fact-checking ecosystem with the fragmented response seen before COP26 and COP27, when denialist content surged unchecked. “We’re learning from past summits,” she writes, emphasizing that coordinated vigilance is now part of the climate defense toolkit.

The United Nations Development Programme has unveiled #ClimateCounts, a global campaign using 30 striking data-driven facts to make climate change personal and urgent.

Aimed at countering the surge in climate disinformation, the initiative seeks to boost climate literacy and inspire action as countries prepare new pledges under the Paris Agreement.

Backed by UNDP’s Climate Promise, supporting over 140 countries with $2.45 billion in grant financing, the campaign turns numbers into narratives to remind the world that what’s good for the planet is good for people.

Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) warns that U.S.-style anti-climate rhetoric is crossing the Atlantic, emboldening far-right and anti-democratic movements across Europe.

The report traces funding links, shared slogans like “Make Europe Great Again,” and coordinated attacks on NGOs and EU climate policy.

CAAD cautions that the same disinformation networks undermining science in Washington are now targeting Europe’s climate and democratic institutions alike, a reminder that fighting disinformation is also defending democracy.

Stay tuned for enlightening events & announcements!

The Climate and energy summit 2026 will gather governments, business leaders and industry experts for two days of interactive discussion exploring strategies to secure a resilient future.

Don’t miss the panel Fireside chat: Reframing climate and energy narratives in a polarized world. It will explore how policymakers and business leaders navigate public distrust, politicization and misinformation around climate change, the energy transition and ongoing fossil fuel use.

The Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change is a joint partnership between the Brazilian Government, the UN Secretariat and UNESCO. It aims to produce and gather evidence on the impact of disinformation on climate issues.

To foster programmatic coherence and optimize impact, a Global Multi-donor Fund for the Integrity of Information on Climate Change will be created to fund networked, in-depth research that will contribute to exposing and dismantling disinformation related to climate change, as well as the dissemination of the results of the research. Stay tuned.

The RePlaybook gathers insights from 30 organisations and practitioners at the forefront of the response. From attention-sucking algorithms to AI-generated slop, it explores how our information environment is shaping and influencing opinion on climate and offers strategies to decode disorder, challenge tech paradigms, and counteract division. This collaborative guide combines thought leadership and practical approaches. It equips communicators, campaigners, journalists, and researchers with fresh tools for navigating complexity and strengthening climate discourse in an age of cultural divides and contested truth.

The UN has just released its first comprehensive guide to strengthening information integrity globally. The new issue brief covers everything from identifying disinformation campaigns to building community resilience against false narratives. It frames information integrity as cross-cutting, touching governance, human rights, public health, climate action, and more. It highlights the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change and notes inclusion of information integrity in the COP Action Agenda for the first time.

Use Hot Air explore tool to see which topics are driving the conversation about climate change, from scepticism to outright mis-disinformation.

Here is the core of the story of how the Hot Air project was born: How a dubious claim about whales went from fringe argument to presidential policy.

Don’t miss this online course to tackle climate misinformation run by AFP.  It is free and in 45 minutes you’ll learn how to verify content and claims about climate change, we’ll talk about “greenwashing”, see what content is not verifiable, identify some types of misinformation and which sources to use.

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