Gender Just Climate Action requires truth

This open letter was released on November 12, on the official thematic day on information integrity at COP30 in Belém. This crucial window of opportunity must not be wasted, and the fossil fuel industry’s manipulation of public discourse must be stopped.

The open letter received support by more than 200 organizations and 200 individuals.

 

“We must fight the coordinated disinformation campaigns impeding global progress on climate change” Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General

 

While many extreme weather events worsen and the 2025 UNEP missions Gap Report warns we are on track to dangerously exceed the 1.5°C goal, vested economic and political interests—chiefly those in the fossil fuel industry—continue to organize and finance disinformation campaigns. While the vast majority of people globally demand climate action, the calculated production and dissemination of misinformation and disinformation is designed to hold back climate action. By creating a false perception of public division and apathy, these campaigns are derailing effective climate policy and actively discrediting renewable energy solutions, slowing the essential energy transition.

The degradation and pollution in the information ecosystem is not merely a climate crisis; it is a multi-faceted global emergency. As demonstrated by recent studies from the International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) and Climate Social Science Network, organized climate obstruction activities are actively delaying the human response to the crisis, directly sabotaging international cooperation, making the Paris Agreement goals unattainable, and putting the lives of millions at risk.
Disinformation is thus a direct and immediate threat to:

• Public Health: Every falsehood delays climate action, translating into real harm: children breathing toxic air, families displaced by floods, and communities facing heatstroke and hunger. The same playbook once used by Big Tobacco is now weaponized by fossil fuel interests.
• Human Rights and Security: Disinformation erodes trust in institutions, misleads the public during disasters, and obstructs rapid, life-saving transitions. It is a fundamental threat to the just, democratic, and science-based action required, and must be treated as a security and human rights concern.

These threats to the general public are exacerbated by the unregulated and unchecked power of Big Tech and vested-interest media, as the primary vehicles for mass-producing and disseminating the manipulative and divisive content that is hindering climate action and threatening freedom of speech, democracies, and human rights.

Information Integrity Is Non-Negotiable

Access to accurate information is essential for effective climate action and the fulfillment of human rights. To secure the foundation of information integrity and accelerate climate action, national governments must move decisively from mere recognition to mandatory, verifiable action. We demand that all Parties at COP30 to:

UNEQUIVOCALLY RECOGNIZE that upholding information integrity on climate change is a prerequisite for effective climate action, the protection of rule of law, people’s health, and the fulfillment of fundamental human rights.

Download the full open letter here