Lisbon, Aug. 6, 2025 (Lusa) - Alice Fonseca, climate and policy technician at the environmental organisation WWF Portugal, says that climate misinformation increases in contexts of uncertainty, becoming an obstacle to climate action.
In an interview with the Lusa news agency, the representative of the environmental organisation World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) admits that climate misinformation tends to increase in contexts of uncertainty, crisis and when there are extreme weather events, “because these are situations in which people are more vulnerable to information that appeals strongly to emotion”, making them more susceptible to believing incorrect information.
“All large-scale events have a major impact on people’s lives, so it is not possible to identify immediately what causes false information to circulate,” added the expert.
Thus, “climate disinformation is effectively an obstacle to climate action,” says the WWF representative, noting that this type of misinformation circulates mainly on social networks with different actors spreading it, such as companies or influencers.
A recent study by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) revealed that the four main digital platforms (Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube) used extreme weather events to amplify misinformation and conspiracy theories in order to profit from the rapid proliferation of content.
In addition, Alice Fonseca points out that climate misinformation “is not just about outright denial” but “also about discrediting solutions, questioning their effectiveness or justice, or proposing solutions that are not really solutions”.
For the expert, one of the main arteries of climate disinformation is not the rejection of the fact that climate change exists, but rather “the influence on how people perceive its solutions”.
A recent Eurobarometer survey revealed that around 90% of Portuguese people consider climate change to be a serious problem, with 91% believing that the fight against this phenomenon should be a priority.
In this regard, Alice Fonseca acknowledges that “in Portugal, we have not seen such intense disinformation campaigns as in other countries, but this is nonetheless a growing concern and an increasingly pressing issue”.
The WWF representative concluded by saying that climate resilience must be built in order to protect a range of services that are essential to the well-being of the population.
PYR/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
