Climate Misinformation Is 'Muddying Waters' And Delaying Urgent Action, Experts Warn

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) The fossil fuel industry and right-wing populists are coordinating misinformation campaigns to obstruct efforts to tackle the climate crisis, according to the co-author of a new report on climate misinformation. This content was published on July 11, 2025 - 09:00 7 minutes

I am a climate and science/technology reporter. I am interested in the effects of climate change on everyday life and scientific solutions. Born in London, I am a dual citizen of Switzerland and the UK. After studying modern languages and translation, I trained as a journalist and joined swissinfo in 2006. My working languages are English, German, French and Spanish.

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Klaus Bruhn JensenExternal link , a professor at the University of Copenhagen,External link says in recent years climate denialism has evolved into structured campaigns focused on discrediting climate solutions.

“It's a sort of muddying of the waters – strategic scepticism – which attempts to question and de-legitimise solutions long supported by climate science,” he told Swissinfo.

Klaus Bruhn Jensen is a professor of media and communication at the University of Copenhagen. IPIE

Jensen co-led a comprehensive study by the Zurich-based International Panel on the Information EnvironmentExternal link (IPIE), published in June, which reviewed 300 scientific papers on climate misinformation from the past decade.

Fossil fuel companies, right-wing populists, think tanks, and some states have shifted from outright denial to sowing doubt about climate solutions, the panel found. The aim is to erode trust and delay political and economic interventions, including the transition to clean energy.

Jensen points to the way in which critics swiftly blamed solar and wind energy for the massive blackout in Spain and Portugal on April 28. This was amplified on social media for weeks before the Spanish government finally declaredExternal link last month that the national grid operator and private power generation firms were responsible for an energy blackout caused by the power grid's lack of capacity to control grid voltage.

“This is a good example of how unconfirmed suggestions, a sort of 'perhaps it could be this', or 'I wonder if this is the case' were floated and picked up by certain news media,” he notes.

Critics initially blamed the overreliance on renewables for the blackout on April 28 in Spain and Portugal. But Spain's government said on June 17 that the Spanish power grid's lack of capacity to control grid voltage had caused a chain reaction that led to the massive blackout. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

But it is not only the public who we should be worried about, says the Danish professor. A key finding is that misinformation increasingly focuses on reaching political leaders, civil servants, and regulators, often via under-the-radar channels.

Usual suspects – but more organised

The interests behind this misinformation are largely unchanged from 10–20 years ago but now form more organised coalitions. These include fossil fuel companies allied with political groups.

The report outlines how the fossil fuel industry has engaged in a“dual deception”: denying climate change and its role in it, while using greenwashing to appear sustainable. Other sectors, including US electricity firms, animal agriculture, airlines, tourism, and fast food, have also spread climate misinformation.

The report cited a study based on 725 corporate sustainability reportsExternal link that found major gaps between companies' environmental claims and actual practices. Legal filings from polluting industries involved in climate litigation have also been used to spread narratives that downplay their role in the crisis.

The IPIE says research over the past decade indicates the formation of a coordinatedExternal link“climate change countermovementExternal link” operating across different industries and sectors, including the industries of fossil fuel, plastic and agrichemical production.

Researchers have documented extensive organised collaboration among fossil fuel companies, states, and political actors to deny the scientific evidence about climate change and delayExternal link policies and interventions. And diverse interest groups, associations, lobbies and think tanks often work in tandem to resist or slow down mitigating solutions, the review says.

'A giant hoax'

In the US, climate change has become a divisive issue. President Donald Trump, who has called climate science a“giant hoax” and withdrawn the US from the Paris Agreement for a second time, is a key influencer“whose logical fallacies, unfounded claims, and cherry-picking of findings were heavily” reposted by other social media users, including many bot accounts, the report says.

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