- Bayern hit nine, Real Madrid and Liverpool win as new Champions League kicks off
- Author John Grisham joins bid to save Texas death row inmate
- Venezuela arrests fourth American over alleged 'plot' against Maduro
- 'Happy' Mbappe strikes on Madrid Champions League debut win over Stuttgart
- Man Utd hit Barnsley for seven in League Cup rout
- Dolphins quarterback Tagovailoa facing concussion layoff
- Stylish Liverpool strut past Milan in confident Champions league opener
- Kane scores four as Bayern put nine past Zagreb in the Champions League
- Mbappe strikes on Madrid Champions League debut win over Stuttgart
- More than 3,600 food packaging chemicals found in human bodies
- Harris calls Trump as assassination scare sparks tensions
- Dow edges down from record as some eye a smaller Fed rate cut
- Sommer vows Inter will 'defend with all we have' to stop Haaland
- Report links meatpacking companies to 'war on nature' in Brazil
- Bolivian ex-leader Morales, backers set out on weeklong protest march
- Smith grateful to McCullum for launching his England career
- Arizona to ask court to rule on voting rights
- Villa make perfect start on Champions League return after 41-year absence
- Israeli supply chain infiltration likely behind Hezbollah pager blasts: analysts
- Rodgers backs Celtic to be 'really competitive' in Champions League
- Spacewalk an 'emotional experience' for private astronauts
- Storm Boris toll rises to 22 in central Europe
- Nine dead, 2,800 wounded as Lebanon's Hezbollah hit by pager blasts
- Boeing, union resume talks as strike empties Seattle plants
- Over 3,600 food packaging chemicals found in human bodies
- Australia's Zampa accepts Ashes chances remote as 100th ODI looms
- UN General Assembly debates call for end to Israeli occupation
- Marseille complete signing of French international Rabiot
- Easterby to fill in as Ireland coach while Farrell is with the Lions
- Hezbollah in Lebanon hit by wave of deadly pager blasts
- Postecoglou taken aback by criticism of his second season success claim
- US, European stocks rise on retail sales, rate cut expectations
- Fendi sees Roaring 20s at Milan Fashion Week in challenging times
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr part ways with coach Castro
- Scottish government backs Glasgow to stage troubled 2026 Commonwealth Games
- Storm Boris toll rises to 21 in central Europe
- Instagram, under pressure, tightens protection for teens
- Inflation slows again in Canada to 2%
- US, European stocks rise on eve of Fed rate decision
- EU bans Algerian spread toasted on social media
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs charged with racketeering, sex trafficking
- Trump returns to campaign trail after assassination scare
- Activist urges repatriation of Native Americans dead in Paris 'human zoo'
- US retail sales see slight rise, beating expectations
- US Fed begins two-day meeting set to end with rate cut
- Exploding Hezbollah pagers wound hundreds across Lebanon
- Runners-up Yokohama thrashed 7-3 in AFC Champions League goal fest
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs to plead not guilty to racketeering, sex trafficking
- Jihadist group claims rare attack on Mali capital
- 'I am a rapist,' Frenchman tells trial over mass rape of wife
Campaigners rally COP27 to fight climate disinformation
Campaigners on Tuesday urged the COP27 summit to fight disinformation that undermines efforts to limit deadly global warming, as a survey showed millions of people believe climate change falsehoods.
In an open letter, the campaigners called on UN climate talks delegates and social media giants to adopt a common definition of climate disinformation and misinformation, and work to prevent it.
They also urged the bosses of seven digital giants, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, to implement tough polices preventing false climate information spreading on their platforms, similar to measures taken on the Covid-19 pandemic.
"We cannot beat climate change without tackling climate misinformation and disinformation," the letter said.
"While emissions continue to rise, humanity faces climate catastrophe, yet vested economic and political interests continue to organise and finance climate misinformation and disinformation to hold back action," it added.
The letter was signed by 550 groups and individuals, including former leading UN climate official Christiana Figueres and diplomat Laurence Tubiana, one of the architects of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which is the current basis for global targets to curb climate change.
Misinformation is false information that may be shared in good faith. Disinformation is spread with the intent to deceive.
The signatories demanded "swift and robust global action from COP decision-makers and tech platforms to mitigate these threats".
- 'Perception gap' -
The letter accompanied a survey showing the extent that false climate information is believed in six of the world's major economies.
It found large sections of the populations of Australia, Brazil, Britain, Germany, India and the United States believe false claims about human-caused climate change.
At least 20 percent of those surveyed in each country believe current global warming is a natural phenomenon and not caused by humans.
This is despite global warming's human causes being exhaustively documented by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which says human-made climate change is "unequivocal".
The survey was published by two climate content watchdogs, Climate Action Against Disinformation and the Conscious Advertising Network, and was compiled by polling respondents to YouGov panels weeks ahead of COP27.
"There is a big gap in public perception and the science on issues as basic as whether climate change exists or whether it is mainly caused by humans," the survey's authors said.
"This perception gap weakens the public mandate for climate action and undermines the negotiations to achieve the goals of the Paris climate agreement."
Climate disinformation monitors say the fossil fuel industry has been deliberately sowing doubt about the role of carbon emissions in global warming for decades.
- Belief in 'hoax' -
The survey found that 44 percent of people in Australia and 46 percent in the United States believe climate change is not caused mainly by human activity.
In the United States, 23 percent of people think climate change is a hoax made up by "elite" organisations, the survey showed.
In India, 85 percent of the population believed at least one piece of climate misinformation. Among the six countries, that measure was lowest in Britain at 55 percent.
Respondents who consumed news at least five days per week were more likely to believe certain misinformation.
"This suggests that news outlets' reporting regularly includes misinformation narratives," the report said.
Facebook, Google and other tech giants have said they are acting to make false climate claims less visible, including in paid advertisements.
But in a detailed study released earlier this year, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue said messages aiming to "deny, deceive and delay" climate action were prevalent across social media.
The ClimateScam hashtag is currently the top term that pops up on Twitter's search tool when a user types "climate".
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres last week used the COP27 stage to strike out at greenwashing -- a form of corporate disinformation.
He called for an end to the "toxic cover-up" by companies he said were "using bogus 'net-zero' pledges to cover up massive fossil fuel expansion".
A.Malone--AMWN