ISD contributes to shaping the European Commission’s DG-CLIMA policy regarding climate mis- and disinformation

In February 2024, ISD briefed the Director-General and all senior personnel at DG-CLIMA, the leading entity within the European Commission dedicated to combating climate change. This briefing followed months of outreach with departmental leads, aimed at integrating a robust response to climate mis- and disinformation explicitly within CLIMA’s mandate and programmes.

During the briefing, ISD presented an overview of the threat landscape and outlined three explicit calls to action where CLIMA could provide leadership: Public Diplomacy; Polling and Analysis; and Regulatory Efforts. As a direct result, DG-CLIMA enshrined these three pathways in a new official document titled “Managing Climate Risks: Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions”.

The key section of the document reads as follows:

“The Commission will contribute to efforts to monitor and analyse how disinformation narratives enter the public space and impact opinion and behaviour. It will enhance the use of relevant policy tools, digital solutions, and communication approaches to fight climate disinformation. This includes ensuring that compliance with the Digital Services Act properly covers disinformation and that climate science is properly covered in social media companies’ compliance with the Code of Practice on Disinformation. It will also work with partners internationally to address disinformation as a growing societal challenge that is rooted in skewed economic incentives and poses a threat to the functioning of our democratic systems.”

 This new document marks a significant milestone both in aligning EU climate bodies with wider regulatory frameworks, particularly concerning Big Tech, and in ensuring climate is recognised as a distinct vector of harm in such efforts.