Countering new climate denialism a TAFF task

The oil crisis caused by the war in the Middle East and the upcoming conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels (TAFF) in Santa Marta, Colombia has drawn global attention right back to the imperative of ending the era of fossil fuel dominance.

This comes after a 2025 that has seen media coverage on the climate crisis decrease. Despite another year of record-breaking temperatures and the historic 30th UN climate negotiations (COP30) in Brazil, the decline occurred due to several reasons – shift of media focus to covering geopolitical turmoil, readers’ fatigue with climate information, among others.

As stakeholders make their own recommendations on executing the TAFF or developing the roadmap from Santa Marta, there is one key aspect that must not be forgotten: addressing new climate denialism.

New tricks, same old

The fossil fuel industry has failed on its quest to deny the reality of the climate crisis. So now, they are going for a different approach.

A recent study revealed how climate denialism has taken on a new form. Unable to deny evidence that global warming is real or human-induced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are causing this phenomenon, the focus of these tactics is now on downplaying the benefits of climate solutions or the credentials of those advocating for climate action.

While their bottomline of perpetuating the necessity of fossil fuels remains the same, the main messages have shifted towards the likes of discrediting the impact of renewable energy (RE), claiming adaptation policies as more harmful than beneficial to the economy, and reducing the climate movement to be mere alarmists or even frauds. 

One target of this rhetoric, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is currently facing financing issues that, if unaddressed by 2028, would leave it out of funding – a problem that denialists are far less likely to encounter.

Another common messaging is on the necessity of reliance on fossil fuels, emphasizing its role on energy security and national security overall and framing them as “transition fuels”. As nice as these may sound, it must be noted that we never hear them being as supportive of proper phaseout plans as part of what is intended to be just energy transition (JET). 

Much of the old and new forms of climate denial remain persistent on social media, from ads on YouTube to posts on Facebook. With either platform failing to implement the necessary regulations to ban content of this nature, these posts continue to be largely accessible to billions of people and possibly hinder awareness-raising towards climate action.

Addressing climate misinformation has been gaining traction in the global policymaking arena in recent months. Last June, a call was made by Elisa Morgera, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and climate change, to criminalize acts of disinformation, on the basis of human rights obligations of States under international law.

This was followed by several countries at COP30 launching the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change, calling for stronger commitments to promote accurate, evidence-based climate information and address all forms of disinformation.

With these developments, it is crucial for any TAFF strategy at any scale to integrate effective campaigns to counter climate denialism, old or new. This is necessary to get more public support in demanding accountability from polluters like the fossil fuel industry and national governments to at least initiate JET plans, with clear phaseout targets and timelines for coal, oil, and gas, aligned with science and evidence-based findings.  

Why it matters

Nonetheless, addressing the influence of the fossil fuel industry will remain challenging in the short-term. Their influence remains unjustly prevalent in the climate negotiations, as evidenced by the failure to even mention “fossil fuels” in the decision text, let alone see at least half of the Parties endorse the formulation of the TAFF roadmap.

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East is also unjustly giving fossil fuel giants significant increases in profits due to much higher fuel prices. In the meantime, climate aid from developed countries is being reallotted towards defense spending, while developing countries largely importing fuels are forced to incur higher energy expenses – which also threatens national security, not just in the energy sector.

Furthermore, if the war continues for the next few months, with many of the world’s flight pathways going through said region, the participation of many governments and non-government delegates, especially from the Global South, in the next COP in Türkiye or the annual climate conference in Bonn will be adversely affected.

Yet for genuine climate advocates in any sector, the current situation should only fuel even more the demand for accountability. Forcing the fossil fuel industry to change its tactics prove that even the strongest narratives can never match sheer integrity of the truth that has been in front of us all along.

Campaigns can be designed to lobby for national policies that criminalize acts of climate disinformation, subject to careful design and extensive consultations. Sectors frequently targeted by bots, trolls, and other proponents of false information, such as climate scientists, JET campaigners, and environmental defenders, must be capacitated in navigating social media and protect themselves from such attacks.

In an era where short attention spans become vulnerabilities, sensationalized lies can spread like wild fires, and freedom of speech is being unethically used as a shield for corporations to hide behind in the name of profiteering, advocates should invest resources in campaigning to ensure the protection of human rights and well-being and counter fraudulent claims.

Whichever kind of lies we choose to fight in the era of the climate emergency, it is not going to be easy. Yet it is a TAFF choice we must make.

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