Countries launch declaration at COP30 to tackle climate misinformation
The Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change launched a declaration in Belém on Wednesday (Nov. 12) during the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30). The document was announced with the signatures of 11 countries, including Brazil, and a call for more signatories.
The Global Initiative is a coalition launched by the Brazilian government with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) during the 2024 G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro. It brings together governments, multilateral organizations, society, academia, and the private sector in actions to tackle climate misinformation and promote public debate based on scientific evidence, transparency, and international cooperation.
“This is the first COP that includes information integrity as a topic on the agenda for action. For the first time, we have two days dedicated to information integrity. And this also applies to the negotiation process,” said João Brant, Secretary of Digital Policies at President Lula’s press office.
“Bringing information integrity to the cooperation process means learning from each other, from both the perspective of climate action and that of information integrity, joining forces to take urgent action,” Brant added.
The initiative was made up of ten countries that worked together to draft the declaration. In addition to Brazil, the coalition includes Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and Uruguay. The Netherlands joined the ten countries in signing the declaration.
“In this great fight against climate misinformation, there is no single solution. We cannot just ban climate misinformation and hope it will resolve itself,” said the head of the French delegation, Ambassador Benoît Faraco.
"So we need to work together, not only with civil society and NGOs, but also with scientists and companies, because they’re also affected. And that’s why we are fighting this battle against misinformation, in a spirit of collaboration, aligned with the Brazilian presidency of the COP,” said Faraco, who is the French representative in charge of negotiations on climate change, decarbonized energy, and climate risk prevention.
In addition to recognizing the threats to the integrity of climate information, the declaration also commits countries at the international, national, and local levels to freedom of expression and of the press and to promoting initiatives and policies that promote reliable information.
The document, Brant continued, is comprehensive in its approach to different forms of threats to information integrity, which go beyond denialism and misinformation, also addressing “the lack of conditions, for example, to do investigative journalism, issues related to the safety of journalists, and issues related to environmental sustainability, which are key,” he argued.
