“It’s no longer just the fossil fuel industry that is calling climate change and climate protection measures into question with campaigns worth billions,” emphasized Jennie King, Head of Climate and Research at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (London). In addition, there are “outrage merchants” and “hostile state actors”. King explained this at a webinar of the global media network Covering Climate Now (CCN), which took place in cooperation with the NGO coalition Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD).

Social media as a crucial mouthpiece

Social media, with its global penetration, click-through logic and algorithmic amplification, is a crucial mouthpiece for disinformation. This gives climate deniers additional attention and influence, which also spills over into the traditional media.

Be it that angry citizens try to intimidate or personally defame weather presenters with hate speech online and place them in the corner of paid “system chatterers” or “wokers” or “left-green ideologues”. Or that influencers use false or contradictory claims about climate change and climate protection to knit their own business models around the “attention economy”, sometimes as an extension of fossil fuel industry players.

Conspiracy theorists and climate deniers hand in hand

Conspiracy theories are also increasingly going hand in hand with climate denial, emphasized King. For example, by branding climate activists as advocates of a new imperialism or as aloof elites. At the same time, the discourse of climate deniers is shifting into their own bubbles, be it closed forums or special platforms. This makes it all the more difficult to reach them with rational arguments and to counter the agitation, which can ultimately lead to physical violence. The murder of two climate activists in Panama is the saddest recent example of increasing aggression, which is also finding its way into the political mainstream of society.

Stoking fears about climate protection measures

King also sees a trend where disinformation about climate change is no longer aimed at denying global warming itself, but at planned climate protection measures and solutions. There are often attempts to suggest that practical climate protection measures are intended to take away people’s civil liberties. She also referred to the German debate on the Heating Act and heat pumps.

“It doesn’t really matter if 99% of the public believe in climate change. If they are still confused about the viable ways forward, or if they manage to stir up real fears and doubts about the solutions that are on the table, then it leads to the same result: no legislative agenda, no meaningful policy proposals, no action on the ground. So they’re trying to slow down that policy-making process,” King recently told National Public Radio (NPR) in the US.

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Questioning greenwashing

King counts authoritarian regimes such as Russia and oil states such as Saudi Arabia among the hostile state actors that deliberately question climate protection. Oil states in particular, just like fossil fuel industries, skillfully use the communication keyboard to sell their supposedly progressive climate protection efforts to the public as well as possible (greenwashing).

This makes it all the more important to take a closer look and ask what companies such as Shell mean by net zero and what percentage of their profits they actually invest in renewable energies, emphasized Jessica Green, a political scientist at the University of Toronto (Canada). The same applies to oil-producing countries such as Nigeria or Dubai, added Frederick Mugira, water and climate journalist and founder of the “Water Journalists Africa” network (Uganda).

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Critically examining the functions of stakeholders

It is also important to critically examine the functions of stakeholders who have taken up the cause of climate protection. As a prominent example, Mugira cited the President of the COP 28 in Dubai, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, head of the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and President of the state-owned renewable energy company Masdar.

Jenny King also advised all media and NGO representatives attending the UN Climate Change Conferences to take digital security seriously in order to prevent data theft or misuse of smartphones, laptops or tablets. She considers the use of public Wi-Fi, scanning QR codes or using facial recognition instead of passwords to access your own device to be no-goes.

Help for the fact check

A number of international databases and research aids are available for fact-checking in the climate sector and for lobbying actors, as was made clear at the webinar. These include CCNow, CAAD, DeSmog and CSSN (Climate Social Science Network).  (hcn)





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Worsening effects of climate change, high market volatility in energy and materials, geopolitical tensions — all of these factors make it extremely difficult for policymakers to ensure the supply of secure, clean, and affordable energy. However, public support for changing the way energy is used has been growing, opening up new opportunities. Reducing energy demand could help save money for households and businesses, create employment, reduce emissions, and improve air quality, according to a new commentary, published by members of the Energy Demand Changes Induced by Technological and Social Innovations (EDITS) network, coordinated by IIASA (International Institute for Applied Systsems Analysis).

The authors of the commentary argue that improving the ways in which we consume energy to fulfil human needs could lead to a substantial reduction in total energy demand in 2050, and consequently make it easier to decarbonize energy supply. Their paper refers to a global ‘High-with-Low’ scenario that delivers high wellbeing with low energy and material resource consumption, while limiting global warming in line with Paris Agreement targets.

Reduce energy consumption – improving standards of living and social wellbeing

“There are numerous ways for us to dramatically reduce the energy we consume while improving our standards of living, the quality of our cities, and our social wellbeing. Our analysis shows this should be the ‘first best’ strategy for tackling climate change,” says senior IIASA researcher Charlie Wilson, who is one of the authors.

The commentary highlights the need for societal and technological transformations that could form the basis for new lifestyles to create a modern, more just, net-zero world through innovation.
“Placing individual level transformations at the center of solutions to drastically reduce energy consumption globally does not mean shifting the responsibility of climate mitigation to people,” says IIASA researcher and coauthor of the commentary Benigna Boza-Kiss. “On the contrary, it is about empowering people by providing access to the right infrastructure, technology, and incentives. Many new cities will be built in the developing world so there is a huge opportunity to foster inclusive growth by staying clear of unsustainable practices.”

Policymakers often focus on the supply-side, with an emphasis on how to supply energy that is affordable, clean, and secure. The EDITS network members argue that analysis and tailoring of the demand for energy resources can and should play a complementary role in achieving this aim, especially given the risks brought by market volatility and geopolitics.

Reduce material and energy requirements

The authors define demand-side solutions as policies, interventions, and measures that modify demand for goods and services to reduce material and energy requirements, as well as associated GHG emissions, while also contributing to other policy objectives, including improved wellbeing and living standards. For example, measures might promote lifestyle changes and the adoption of certain behaviors, while also aiming to improve the efficiency of supply chains and infrastructure, thereby increasing people’s wellbeing.

The potential benefits of demand-side solutions are promising. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, demand-side solutions could reduce GHG emissions from end-use sectors like buildings, transport, retail, and industry by 40–70% by 2050, with multi-faceted increases in wellbeing and no corresponding reduction in service levels.

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“Research on ‘High-with-Low’ demand-side scenarios is challenging because scenarios have to deal with various demand-side technologies as well as a wide range of cultures and social practices. However, now that the IPCC is entering its new phase, the time is ripe to kick-start a new frontier of climate change mitigation modeling and scenario research,” notes Masahiro Sugiyama, the lead author of the commentary and professor at the University of Tokyo.

Low energy and material demand scenarios under-explored

The authors point out that some local, national, and international bodies are already encouraging demand-side solutions, such as the local governments of Paris or Barcelona. However, much of the current emphasis in scientific research and modeling focuses on supply-side solutions and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This includes bioenergy production with carbon capture and storage (CCS), which involves serious trade-offs and risks due to intensive land-use requirements. The fear is that scaling it up could create major competition for land with food producers. In contrast, low energy and material demand scenarios are under-explored in research.

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The authors point out that there should be a much greater focus on modeling these scenarios to inform policy and innovation because they minimize the trade-offs we face in tackling climate change. This will require better data on demand, services, wellbeing, business models, and technological innovation, with an accompanying careful selection of indicators key to producing useful models.

The EDITS network is working actively to address these data and modeling needs by bringing together researchers from many different fields as part of a collective effort from researchers, governments, funders, and other stakeholders to help us move towards a sustainable future. (hcn)





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