Following President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s speech at the opening ceremony of COP30 in which he stressed that “it’s time to inflict a new defeat on the deniers,” the issue of disinformation received unprecedented attention at the conference with the publication of the first declaration on the integrity of information on climate change. The effort gained momentum when the climate summit itself became the target of a fake news campaign on social media using images generated by artificial intelligence.
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In Belem, the first declaration on the completeness of information on climate change was published within the scope of the Convention. The declaration is on the agenda of the Global Initiative on Information Integrity on Climate Change, which includes UNESCO, the Brazilian government and the United Nations. It was born at the G20 Presidents and Heads of State Summit in Rio in November 2024 and has been gaining momentum ever since. At Palácio do Planalto, this theme is led by João Brandt, Secretary for National Digital Policy.
The document has the support of at least 12 countries, most of them in Europe. The list includes France, Germany, Canada, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. Organizers hope to attract at least 30 participants during the COP.
The declaration does not include any practical actions, but among other points in the document, it expresses “concern about the growing impact of disinformation, disinformation, denialism, and deliberate attacks on environmental journalists, advocates, scientists, researchers, and other public voices and other tactics used to undermine the integrity of information about climate change, which reduce public understanding, delay urgent action, and threaten the global climate response and societal stability.”
Combating misinformation is one of the main objectives Brazil wants to promote at COP30, along with forest protection. This item is not part of the conference’s official agenda and is therefore not part of the negotiations. The debate will take place in parallel, especially in the so-called Blue Zones, where the main national and sub-national authorities of the countries participating in the event are located. Most absent is President Donald Trump’s United States, which, like China, is home to major tech giants.
In his opening speech to the Leaders’ Summit, Lula addressed the sector’s companies, who are at the center of the debate on information integrity, said Frederico Assis, Special Envoy of Brazil’s COP Presidency. He spoke with platform representatives and said that while his approach was positive, “there is still a lot of work to be done.”
— The structural problem to be solved is to put in place sensible regulations that uphold the right to freedom of expression. But Assis says it’s impossible to hold everyone accountable for hate speech, or speech that affects people. — Research shows that false content is reinforced and this is the origin of (big tech companies’) business models. Because they want engagement. However, we want to build relationships that are collaborative and based on dialogue.
Big platforms aren’t the only ones looking for bad actors when it comes to disinformation and climate change. Experts such as Marie Santini, founder and director of NetLab, UFRJ’s communication school laboratory, have also criticized the actions of companies in the most polluting sectors, such as oil and gas. Santini compares this action to past strategies by tobacco producers to block progress in implementing measures to reduce emissions.
— In the case of the tobacco industry, after scientific evidence showed that cigarettes did indeed cause cancer, the industry began developing a series of communication strategies to relativize the scientific evidence, thereby setting back the fight against smoking by at least 20 or 30 years — Santini explains.
According to experts, “The methods used by companies that pollute the environment are the same.”
— it involves creating ignorance and confusing discussion. Disinformation is based on well-thought-out and articulated manipulation strategies. The creators have very clear intentions, says NetLab’s director.
Letícia Capone, research director at the Instituto Democracia em Xeque, sees the commitment to completeness of information on climate change as progress. Researchers credit Brazil’s leading role in the discussions as helping to clarify the agenda and stress the need for a joint role between countries to effectively combat lies in the environmental field.
— Disinformation related to climate and the environment does not only arise from clearly false content. He emphasizes that this often occurs in the midst of polarized and strategic political arguments against development policies and environmental protection.
According to a study predicted by columnist Anselmo Gois and obtained by GLOBO, more than 1,114 posts were classified as false on Monday, the first day of the COP. The monitoring was carried out by the AI platform Tistto, which analyzed 10,000 publications on social networks TikTok, Instagram and X.
Among them, for example, was a post noting that the beginning of the event coincided with the arrival of a tornado in the state of Paraná as a “divine warning”, and another showing a photo of Lula “talking to the wall” during a speech at a conference, created using artificial intelligence tools.
Photoshopped photos and videos have also been circulated showing Lula and Janja toasting with champagne on a yacht used as accommodation in Belém, and a COP 30-marked boat catching fire in the city’s harbour.
Some publications have highlighted infrastructure problems found at the venue where the event will be held, such as air conditioning that broke down on the first day of the summit, as revealed by GLOBO. “FLOP30, an event hall with no air conditioning, sincerely wants people to believe in ‘global warming’ at all costs,” the post on X said.
David Nehmer, a technology anthropologist and professor at the University of Virginia, also has positive expectations for the results of this effort. Researchers understand that it could mobilize funding, strengthen journalism and support policies to combat disinformation internationally, which would result in “very important structural progress”.
— This initiative depends on the voluntary participation of each country. Their absence will reduce their reach, as they are the largest carbon emitters and home to much of the world’s digital infrastructure. But I see this plan as being able to succeed even with these countries on the outside. That could create international references and then pressure other parties to join, Nemer says.
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