Prepared by: Arab Verification Community
Climate misinformation poses a growing threat to climate change efforts, as misinformation weakens people’s attitudes towards more environmentally responsible practices and hinders governments’ commitment to climate change policies. Climate misinformation typically increases around COP sessions.
In this article, we present a methodology for journalists and fact-checkers to combat misinformation sweeping traditional media and social media platforms during the COP. The article also reviews a set of tools that can be relied upon to gather reliable information on various climate issues.
What is climate misinformation?
The European Union knows Misleading Climate-related misinformation can take many forms, from categorical denial of climate change, to the promotion of conspiracy theories, to the dissemination of information aimed at distorting the facts by claiming that climate change is not man-made or that it is not as serious as scientists make it out to be and therefore does not require urgent action.
as to get to know The United Nations One form of environmental deception known as “greenwashing” is the promotion by some parties - companies or governments - of false solutions or measures to confront climate change; to divert attention from effective concrete measures.
Why is exposing environmental misinformation surrounding climate conferences a priority?
The spread of climate misinformation, coinciding with international climate conferences, is no longer a mere incidental or unintended event; rather, it has taken the form of coordinated and systematic campaigns aimed at promoting misinformation. These campaigns seek to influence conference decisions, policies, and even their agendas, which poses a major challenge to international efforts to address the climate crisis.
Article revealed Misinformation is one of the biggest challenges at the climate summit The New York Times reported that influencers, fossil fuel companies, and some countries participating in COP28, which will be held in the United Arab Emirates in 2023, played a prominent role in promoting lies about climate change. The report explained that these misleading campaigns contributed to undermining public efforts to pressure to prevent a catastrophic future for the planet, in addition to the rise of hate speech against climate activists, which made it more difficult to address global climate challenges.
The report issued by “Climate Action Coalition Against MisinformationIn conjunction with COP 28, the report examines the roles played by fossil fuel lobby groups and state-affiliated entities in countering climate change efforts. The report presents four case studies that highlight the activities of these entities in the digital world, and the networks, narratives and tactics they use to promote their ideas.
Rahma Diaa, founder of the Climate School Initiative, believes that the spread of misinformation and disinformation campaigns about climate, which increase during climate conferences and the accompanying focus on the climate crisis, is due to the mounting pressure from climate actors. These pressures aim to push world leaders to take decisive action, such as: completely phasing out fossil fuels, climate finance, and achieving climate justice. However, these demands are not widely accepted in economic and business circles, due to the high costs they require and policies that may not achieve quick economic gains for the stakeholders.
Highlights of the reports that revealed the misinformation accompanying climate conferences
The Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) coalition revealed in its latest report,COP29 Bots: Fake Accounts Boosted Host Country’s Propaganda“On the thousands of fake accounts that worked to promote the host country of this year’s conference, Azerbaijan, and present it as a climate advocate. The report also found the most prominent platforms through which the campaign was active.
As previously reported Denial, Deception, Delay: Exposing New Trends in Climate Disinformation at COP27“, which monitored fossil fuel companies spending four million dollars to fund ads carrying misleading content on the Meta platform, during the climate conference in Egypt.
Methodology for Auditing Coordinated Climate Disinformation Campaigns
The first step begins with monitoring content posted on social media and analyzing the nature of activity on it, with a focus on detecting any misleading information. This includes monitoring accounts to determine whether their activity is natural or artificial, which helps understand the dynamics of content spread and verify its authenticity.
It is also possible to follow and verify official statements, and to scrutinize the statements of politicians, ministers, presidents, and others regarding climate change. I checked Ozone platform denounces several misleading statements by Trump on climate change, including logical fallacies, confusing terms, and delaying steps toward climate action.
Newspaper websites and their news and reports are a potential source of misinformation about climate. Most of these errors result from a lack of deep understanding of climate terminology.
Finally, sponsored ads have played a role in promoting misleading information about climate; therefore, sponsored ads published on Meta, X, and TikTok platforms that include climate-related information should be examined.
Through the above-mentioned sources, it is possible to obtain misleading or incorrect information about the climate, which may fall under: “The Five Techniques of Science Denial”, delusion:
Fake expertise: Presenting unqualified people or organizations as reliable sources of information.
Logical Fallacies: Presenting Arguments Based on Logical Fallacies
Impossible expectations: making unrealistic demands before taking action on climate action
Conspiracy theories: claims of secret plans to carry out malicious schemes
Directed data selection: selecting specific data that supports a particular view while ignoring data that contradicts it.
Tips for fact-checking misleading claims around climate conferences?
Award-winning journalist and founder of The Climate School, Rahma Dia, offered several tips for journalists and fact-checkers when scrutinizing climate-related claims:
1- Avoid making accusations without conclusive evidence to avoid legal accountability.
2- Mention the claim in a separate paragraph at the beginning of the report, with a subheading explaining that this claim is misleading when writing reports so that the reader is not confused.
3- Searching for answers to these questions: Who is behind the spread of these allegations? What is the motive and interest? How do we verify their validity?
4- Use evidence, studies, and reliable websites for data.
5- Refer to reports published by regulatory authorities and monitoring sites that expose environmental violations and abuses.
6- Search fact-checking sites and expose misleading claims. Perhaps someone has done this before you.
7- Communicate with researchers, scientists, and specialists in the research topic to obtain answers and respond to allegations.
8- Use simple language and explain any term that may be difficult for a non-specialist reader to understand.
9- Use pictures, charts, maps and explanatory videos in the information audit report.
10- Write a summary paragraph at the end of the report that includes the most important discovery you made.
The most prominent open sources that can be used
Open source tools are a valuable resource for accessing data in various fields, and monitoring climate change; including:
* Satellite images; the most important of which are in the field of climate. Sentinel Hub AndDynamic fire map And Google Earth Pro.
It also provides a database. Global forest watchData on the decline of vegetation cover in various countries of the world.
The report was usedEgypt buries its lungs under concrete.. The government continues to cut down treesPublished on the “Third Angle” platform, the Global Forest database monitors the erosion of vegetation cover as a result of deforestation.
Skytruth is a useful resource for measuring air pollution levels and monitoring refinery flaring emissions associated with oil extraction.
He presents Open Source Operational Framework Many tools to assist in climate investigations and others, and also provides OSINT Open Source and Tools Handbook More open tools and sources for investigations in general, including climate investigations. Blinkat Tool Bag A comprehensive resource that includes many tools for open source investigations.
* Provides Climate Justice Guide Through an Investigative Lens Numerous tools and ethical caveats for using open source tools in climate investigations and climate misinformation detection. These include tools for measuring vegetation cover, monitoring green space erosion, measuring air pollution, and measuring pollution from gas flaring associated with oil extraction. They also include tools for checking water availability, flood risk, and assessing natural disasters, enhancing the ability to document and verify environmental impacts.
Climate databases that can be used
In addition to open source tools, several websites and specialized databases can be used to obtain reliable information about climate.
1- Provides a platform Climate feedbackAs part of the production of the site Science Feedback“Information based on scientific research outputs, on climate and health issues, making it a source for exposing misinformation.
2- You can rely on the tool Ask NASA Climate Provided by NASA to verify climate misinformation.
3- The site contains Green washing index For information on the most effective practices and actions to reduce climate change and preserve the environment.
4- Provide a platform Climate Watch Open source data and analytics help provide insights into countries' progress on climate change.
5- The Natural Resources Defense Council Alliance platform contains: (NRDC) In collaboration with the Climate and Air Alliance (CCAC) A collection of scientific facts about climate.
6- It is considered Climate Knowledge Base, provided by the Climate and Strategy Foundation, is a free database containing scientific publications, reports, articles, and audio files on various climate issues.
7- Platform dominance Climate Fact Checks Shedding light on climate facts in the face of misleading claims in the media.
8- DeSmog publishes existing Contact climate experts to get in touch and receive reliable information that helps refute the claims.
Challenges of Detecting Climate Misinformation at Conferences:
Big Tech Collusion
Report revealed Misinformation is one of the biggest challenges at the climate summit The New York Times reported that some disinformation sites make huge profits from advertising, making big tech indirectly complicit in promoting this content.
The diversity of forms and images of climate disinformation campaigns
Climate disinformation is constantly changing in its forms depending on the context (shape shifting), ranging from science denial, to conspiracy theories about weakening the economies of countries in favor of other countries, to questioning and challenging the effectiveness of proposed climate solutions and how to implement them, to greenwashing and disinformation about fake climate-friendly policies followed by governments or large companies to mislead public opinion about their real impact on the environment.
Challenges of accessing reliable knowledge
Climate terminology is difficult and complex for non-specialists, creating a challenge in verifying information and a need to understand climate facts and strategies before analyzing and deducing misinformation.
Language barrier challenges
The fact that most reliable and well-researched sources of information are published in English more than reliable content in Arabic is a challenge for journalists and fact-checkers from the MENA region.
Skills Challenges and Technical Empowerment
These challenges are evident in tools that need to handle unstructured data, reclassify it, clean it, and process it, and tools that require technical knowledge such as scraping or extracting data via API to deal with it.
Financial challenges
Some tools are very expensive, making them unsuitable for independent journalists and reviewers, or small businesses and initiatives.
