The profitable business of climate disinformation | D+C - Development + Cooperation

When most people think of climate disinformation, they envision outright denial that climate change exists or is caused by humans. While this does exist, the current landscape is far more nuanced, as research by Global Witness, the investigative human-rights organisation, shows. 

Our Digital Threats to Democracy team is looking at how social-media companies deal with disinformation, hate speech and other worrying things happening online. At Global Witness, investigations take many forms, from undercover, data-led or traditional “follow-the-money” inquiries, to digital investigations. For the past year, we ran a dedicated Climate Disinformation Unit to investigate how climate disinformation spreads across major social-media platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and X. We found new forms of disinformation stretching well beyond traditional denial, encompassing everything from AI-facilitated greenwashing by major corporations to targeted harassment of climate defenders. 

The many faces of climate disinformation

Modern climate disinformation often takes the form of “distract and delay” narratives. These acknowledge that climate change is a problem but argue that other issues take priority. We often hear that net-zero targets are simply too expensive to pursue.

Greenwashing is a key feature of this category. Fossil-fuel companies and other major polluters often heavily promote the small fraction of their business focused on sustainability, while obscuring the environmental damage caused by their primary operations. 

One major concern for us is perhaps a less obvious form of climate disinformation. Across social media we are seeing targeted harassment and hate directed at climate scientists, activists and environmental defenders. These are efforts to silence those voices we need to hear from the most. 

AI’s complex role in climate disinformation

Tech platforms are increasingly integrating generative AI tools into search engines and messaging services. As these tools become widespread, they also shape how people access information about climate change. We found that artificial intelligence already plays a role in disseminating climate disinformation. However, not necessarily in the ways we expected.