Jamaine Punzalan

Residents try to retrieve whatever's left from their destroyed houses in Purok Isla Verde sa Barangay San Isidro, Talisay City, Cebu after raging flood waters swept through the community during the onslaught of Typhoon Tino on November 4, 2025. Dennis Datu, ABS-CBN News/File

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Typhoon TINOPH - CEBU

Raphael Bosano

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/176300518669520251107-ty-tino-cebu-aftermath-talisay-DD1.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Residents try to retrieve whatever&#x27;s left from their destroyed houses in Purok Isla Verde sa Barangay San Isidro, Talisay City, Cebu after raging flood waters swept through the community during the onslaught of Typhoon Tino on November 4, 2025. Dennis Datu, ABS-CBN News/File </span></span></span></div><p>BELÉM, Brazil — Politics and health are not the only areas where disinformation thrives. In an era of rising temperatures and extreme weather, false narratives disguised as “advocacy” or simply, climate disinformation, are spreading fast and wide.</p><p>According to the 2024 United Nations Global Risk Report, climate change inaction ranks as the top global threat, followed closely by misinformation and disinformation. Both, experts warn, are already having significant effects on public awareness and policy.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/health-science/2025/11/4/why-filipinos-should-care-about-climate-negotiations-at-cop30-1416">Why Filipinos should care about climate negotiations at COP30</a></div><div><strong>First-Ever COP Declaration on Information Integrity</strong></div><p>For the first time in the history of the UN climate conference, 13 countries — including Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, and Sweden — signed a Declaration of Information Integrity on Climate Change.</p><p>The declaration recognizes the need to combat the spread of false or misleading information that undermines scientific consensus and weakens climate action</p><p>At a press conference on Wednesday, Kate Cell, Senior Campaigner of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said that to “truly make this COP the COP of truth,” countries must put up safeguards against climate misinformation.</p><p>Among those fueling these false narratives, she added, are fossil fuel companies.</p><p>“Today we’re on track to surpass the science-informed 1.5°C benchmark because the fossil fuel industry and its allies have chosen profit and lies over truth and transformation,” she said.</p><p>J. Timmons Roberts of the Climate Social Science Network at Brown University described climate disinformation as pervasive, sophisticated, corrosive, and rapidly evolving, making it an effective tactic to delay progress.</p><p>“The fossil fuel industry spends about ten times as much as the environmental and renewable sectors combined on lobbying. They spend about nineteen times more on public relations. They do this to preserve their social license to operate,” he said.</p><p>Roberts added that disinformation isn’t spread by fossil fuel interests alone but also by law firms, think tanks, political organizations, social media influencers, and even governments.</p><p>According to ClientEarth, a team of lawyers and policy experts advocating for environmental justice, disinformation doesn’t just distort debates but even more so harms people in real time.</p><p>“We are seeing extreme weather events, floods, fires, heatwaves impacting millions,” said Pierre Cannet of ClientEarth</p><p>“Online, we’ve seen false information spreading across social media. These narratives can hinder governments and first responders from providing emergency assistance.”</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/weather-traffic/2025/11/12/filipino-climate-activists-at-cop30-say-loss-and-damage-not-enough-1307">Filipino climate activists at COP30 say loss and damage ‘not enough’</a></div><div><strong>A problem at home</strong></div><p>In the Philippines, climate disinformation is just as rampant.</p><p>Charles De Luna, a youth and climate advocate from Bohol, is attending COP for the first time to observe discussions. He said climate falsehoods have taken root even in communities directly hit by disasters, including Typhoon Odette (Rai) in 2021.</p><p>A week before COP30, they were also hit by Typhoon Tino (Kalmaegi) which gravely devastated Cebu in Central Philippines.</p><p>“Yung siyensya sa klima, isa siyang consensus ng pinakamagagaling na mga scientist ng IPCC. Nakikita natin na may ebidensiya. Ang Pilpinas, sobrang dami nating bagyo na nararanasan. Pero marami ang ang nagsasabi na hindi ito dulot ng fossil fuel emissions kundi indibiwal na aksyon,” he said</p><p>(Climate science is a consensus of some of the best scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We see the evidence. The Philippines is battered by so many typhoons, but there are still some who say that these aren’t caused by fossil fuel emissions but rather individual actions</p><p>De Luna warned that disinformation not only divides communities but may also weaken the political will of negotiators at global climate talks.</p><p>“Ito’y ay nagke-create ng divide at confusion sa ating mga community at naweweaken nito ang political will ng ating negotiators. Dapat yung negosasyon natin ay nakabase sa best available science at sa katotohanan lamang.”</p><p>(This creates a divide and confusion among communities and it can weaken the political will of our negotiators. Negotiations should be based on the best available science and on truth alone.)</p><p>As temperatures rise and typhoons grow stronger and more destructive, the battle for truth in climate and risk communication becomes even more urgent. However, experts say solutions to climate disinformation exist and the need to dispose of it is urgent to stop it from reaching and impacting even more people.</p><p>For young advocates like De Luna, countering disinformation is not just about setting the record straight. It’s about ensuring a safe future.</p><p>The integrity of climate information will undoubtedly determine not only how the world responds to this crisis but also how the next generation lives through it.</p><div><br/></div><div><em>This story was produced as part of the COP30 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organized by Internews&#x27; Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security.</em></div><div><em><br/></em></div>

<p>Politics and health are not the only areas where disinformation thrives. In an era of rising temperatures and extreme weather, false narratives disguised as “advocacy” or simply, climate disinformation, are spreading fast and wide.</p>

Politics and health are not the only areas where disinformation thrives. In an era of rising temperatures and extreme weather, false narratives disguised as “advocacy” or simply, climate disinformation, are spreading fast and wide.

Climate disinformation a growing threat; countries agree on information integrity

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Climate disinformation a growing threat; countries agree on information integrity

Raphael Bosano,

ABS-CBN News

Published Nov 13, 2025 11:47 AM PHT

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