By Staff Writer
Disinformation is one of the greatest threats to global climate action, world leaders at the COP30 summit in Belém declared. Twelve countries, including Brazil, France, Canada and Germany, have signed the Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change, the first formal commitment by governments to confront false and misleading claims about the climate crisis.
Officials say the surge in false climate narratives is being driven by fossil-fuel interests seeking to delay the energy transition, political actors who are weaponising environmental issues for electoral gain, and online influencers who profit from outrage-based content.
Day three of COP30 ended with the historic adoption of the declaration, which calls on states, media, academia and the private sector to promote accurate environmental information and curb the influence of climate denialism and greenwashing. It is the flagship policy of the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change, a partnership between Brazil, the UN and UNESCO launched at the G20 summit in Rio last year.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opened the summit by declaring COP30 the “COP of Truth,” urging leaders to “defeat climate denialism” and warning that “obscurantists reject scientific evidence and attack institutions.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres echoed the message, calling on governments to “fight mis- and disinformation, online harassment and greenwashing.”
The signing comes amid a sharp rise in climate falsehoods. A new report by the Coalition Against Climate Disinformation and the Observatory for Information Integrity found a 267 per cent increase in COP-related disinformation between July and September. Charlotte Scaddan, senior adviser at UN Global Communications, said the trend was “deeply concerning,” adding that fossil-fuel interests, political actors and online influencers were “monetising outrage and lies.”
Earlier in the day, ClientEarth released research showing how major social-media platforms amplify false climate narratives through their algorithms. “Disinformation is one of the biggest obstacles to climate progress and a warning to us all,” said Kayle Crosson, a senior officer at the organisation.
The danger extends beyond politics. Melissa Lem, president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, said false information during wildfires, floods and heatwaves “spreads faster than facts, leaving people unable to protect themselves.”
The declaration was also backed by civil society. More than 400 organisations and global leaders, including Paris Agreement architects Christiana Figueres and Laurence Tubiana, signed an open letter urging governments to take a stand against the “pollution of the information ecosystem,” describing it as a “multi-faceted global emergency.”
New developments at the summit have underscored the scale of the challenge. A report found that more than 1,600 fossil-fuel lobbyists attended COP30 in Belém, outnumbering every national delegation except Brazil’s and fuelling concerns over corporate influence on climate negotiations. The Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change has also been formally launched, with governments agreeing to fund research on information integrity and strengthen support for developing countries through a new Global Fund. Canada used the summit to reiterate its backing for Indigenous climate leadership and pledged support for both the Tropical Forest Forever Facility and the information-integrity initiative, signalling a wider shift in priorities towards justice, governance and public trust.
Elsewhere, the International Energy Agency launched its 2025 World Energy Outlook, predicting that more renewable-energy capacity will be built between now and 2030 than in the past 40 years combined. Meanwhile, Amnesty International reported that a quarter of the world’s population lives within five kilometres of fossil-fuel operations, putting more than two billion people at risk.
In Belém’s harbour, a flotilla of more than 100 boats carrying 5,000 Indigenous activists and forest defenders marked the start of the People’s Summit, a civil-society gathering running alongside the main talks.
As COP30’s negotiations continue, the message from Brazil is clear: disinformation is no longer seen as a side issue but as a central barrier to climate action, and one the world can no longer afford to ignore.
