False information is threatening climate decision-making at a crucial international summit, according to researchers.
Australian broadcaster Alan Jones and Sky News Australia have been named in a global intelligence report released ahead of the COP28 talks in Dubai.
Misinformation is undermining public and political support for a response to global warming and is increasingly linked to real-world harm, a report by the grassroots Climate Action Against Disinformation Coalition (CAAD) of organisations found.
“On the eve of COP28, the world is grappling with an environmental crisis compounded by an information crisis,” research head Jennie King said.
Some have a stake in the existing carbon-based economy, while others want to profit from the “outrage economy” by manipulating social media traffic and getting advertising revenue, according to the climate information integrity report.
Creating confusion around how to get to net zero emissions, conspiracy theories about green investment or over-hyping contentious technologies are in the playbook.
False information about renewable energy generation is also on the rise, with some taking advantage of fears of change to cause a rift in communities.
Ms King said trust in public institutions was being eroded and there was a risk of violence.
A 2023 study by Global Witness cited in the report polled almost 500 climate scientists, including in Australia, and found the most cited venues for abuse were X/Twitter (44 per cent) and Facebook (31 per cent).
One in five impacted by online hate said the attacks made them fear for their personal safety, with threats of sexual violence against women.
Mr Jones features in material posted against “climate zealots” on fast-growing site Wide Awake Media, researchers said.
Sky News Australia is listed by CAAD as among the 15 websites globally that are accused of undermining climate science and the need for urgent action under the Paris Agreement and playing down the threat to the Great Barrier Reef.
Over 150 advertising exchanges, where online ads are bought and sold, are enabling people to profit from false information on key websites, the CAAD report warned.
Researchers said these included exchanges owned by Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Yahoo, despite explicit policies intended to stop people making money out of false or misleading claims.
Companies using these exchanges for digital marketing may be unaware of where their ads were being placed, and were unwittingly supporting the “monetising” of false information.
Further, the report found the “climate scam” hashtag used to promote climate science denial and conspiracy theories has become more prominent on X/Twitter since the last climate talks a year ago.
Since last year, #ClimateScam has outperformed #ClimateCrisis and #ClimateEmergency every month on X (formerly Twitter).
Paid “influencers” are also being used by companies on social media, to promote the ongoing need for oil and gas for energy security or cost of living reasons, the report found.
Friends of the Earth spokesman Michael Khoo said the climate crisis is too dire to allow undue influence from “Big Oil” and extremism on social media, or a free pass for climate denial by “Big Tech”.
Most platforms lack ways to track greenwashing, which falsely portrays a company or product as environmentally friendly.
And those that have made commitments to fight climate misinformation – YouTube, Meta and TikTok – are failing on enforcement, researchers found.
False claims, or greenwashing, is best described as “talk clean, act dirty”, the report said.
AAP
