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Efforts to tackle the climate crisis are being obstructed and delayed by the widespread dissemination of misleading information about climate change and its potential solutions, according to a major new report.
The report, Information Integrity about Climate Science: A Systematic Review, was released by the International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE), a global consortium of over 250 experts. It synthesised a decade’s worth of academic research on the crisis of information integrity surrounding climate science.
Information integrity, as defined by the ISO 27000 standard for Information Security Management Systems (ISMS), refers to the accuracy and completeness of information. Drawing on a systematic review of 300 studies conducted between 2015 and 2025, the report examined how both accurate and misleading narratives around climate change are produced and disseminated. It also includes a gap analysis highlighting missing evidence and perspectives in existing literature.
The authors warned that climate misinformation is increasingly undermining global efforts to limit emissions and adapt to environmental change. Fossil fuel companies, political actors and some state institutions are identified as primary sources of misinformation, which now targets not only climate science itself but also proposed mitigation and adaptation measures.
The report detailed how companies such as TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell and ConocoPhillips, along with coal producers including Peabody and Core Natural Resources (formed through the merger of CONSOL and Arch Coal), have actively distorted scientific facts. These corporations have sought to downplay their environmental impact and erode public trust in science by promoting misleading narratives about their carbon emissions, it alleged.
Similar tactics have been documented in other high-emission industries, including aviation, fast food, tourism and animal agriculture. In the United States, one recent study showed how firms in the animal agriculture sector, in collaboration with scientific institutions, manipulated reports to understate their carbon footprint — misleading the public and enabling regulatory evasion. Another study found that 44 per cent of carbon-related statements made by commercial airlines were misleading, with comparable findings in the fast-food and tourism sectors.
These narratives are propagated across multiple channels — from digital platforms and traditional broadcast media to interpersonal networks. While the general public is more likely to encounter distorted information via news outlets and social media, policymakers are often targeted through less visible or traceable channels, the report noted.
Although the bulk of existing research has focused on the Global North — particularly the US and Europe — the report flagged a deficit in studies from the Global South. This lack of geographically diverse data, researchers warned, risks leaving vast populations vulnerable to unchecked misinformation.
The report outlined several ways in which misinformation impedes climate action. It distorts public understanding, erodes confidence in the scientific consensus and fosters political paralysis. If left unaddressed, the authors caution, the information crisis could squander the rapidly narrowing window to halve global emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by mid-century.
To confront the problem, the IPIE issued four key policy recommendations: Legal and regulatory reforms to curtail false claims, standardised and transparent emissions disclosures, broader alliances among stakeholders and sustained public education campaigns.
