HEADLINE: “UN Calls for “Climate Misinformation” to be Criminalised” By Eric Worrall
“Last Thursday, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and climate change, Elisa Morgera, called for misinformation and greenwashing by the fossil fuel industry to be criminalised.”
UN Calls for “Climate Misinformation” to be Criminalised
Essay by Eric Worrall
“False claims obstructing climate action” – like claiming the Spanish blackout was caused by renewables
Climate misinformation turning crisis into catastrophe, report says
False claims obstructing climate action, say researchers, amid calls for climate lies to be criminalised
Damian Carrington Environment editorThu 19 Jun 2025 21.00 AEST
Rampant climate misinformation is turning the crisis into a catastrophe, according to the authors of a new report.
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The researchers found climate denialism has evolved into campaigns focused on discrediting solutions, such as the false claims that renewable energy caused the recent massive blackout in Spain.
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Climate misinformation – the term used by the report for both deliberate and inadvertent falsehoods – is of increasing concern. Last Thursday, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and climate change, Elisa Morgera, called for misinformation and greenwashing by the fossil fuel industry to be criminalised. On Saturday, Brazil, host of the upcoming Cop30 climate summit, will rally nations behind a separate UN initiative to crack down on climate misinformation.
…She said states should “criminalise misinformation and misrepresentation (greenwashing) by the fossil fuel industry” and “criminalise media and advertising firms for amplifying disinformation and misinformation by fossil fuel companies”. The UN secretary general, António Guterres, called in June 2024 for a ban on advertising by fossil fuel companies, calling the firms the “godfathers of climate chaos”.
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More on the Spanish blackout explicitly mentioned in the article;
The Guardian confusingly conflates two separate events, a new report by our old friend John Cook, and a UN report presented by Elisa Morgera.
On this occasion, UN rapporteur Elisa Morgera actually produced a more extreme report than John Cook. The UN report includes a demand to immediately cancel all fossil fuel exploration. From Morgera’s UN report;
The imperative of defossilizing our economies
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, Elisa Morgera*
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58. States should adopt and enforce explicit and time-bound legislative measures:
(a) expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure;
To prohibit new fossil fuel exploration and exploitation, as well as any
(b) To revoke licences for existing fossil fuel exploration and exploitation,163 including for captive and on-grid coal plants;164
(c) To strictly regulate the import and export of fossil fuels;
(d) To prohibit the abandonment of fossil fuel infrastructure without remediation, requiring financial guarantees to cover costs for the environmental management of facility closure and subsequent phases, including regarding extraterritorial impacts;
(e) To clarify how energy services will be maintained and improved through other sources, prioritizing the energy needs of rights holders in vulnerable situations domestically and abroad.
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73. States should:
(a) Inform the public about the fossil fuel industry’s deliberate contributions to the planetary crises and about their human rights impacts over decades;
(b) Ensure that accurate, science-based information is made available to the public on defossilization plans, including the underlying economic and technological assumptions, fossil fuel subsidies inventories, emissions embedded in fossil fuel exports, and plans for the decommissioning of infrastructure;
(c) Avoid loopholes in responsible decommissioning,190 and require independent verification of defossilization and decommissioning plans, and of their implementation;
(d) cross-border advertising;
Ban fossil fuel advertisements, promotion and sponsorship, including
(e) Ensure access to comprehensive education on the human rights risks of fossil fuels, and on the benefits of fossil fuel-free production, consumption and lifestyles; 191
(f) Prohibit lobbying by the fossil fuel industry;
(g) Require private financial institutions and universities to disclose publicly, including on social media, funding amounts, durations and any conditions from the fossil fuel industry;
(h) Criminalize misinformation and misrepresentation (greenwashing) by the fossil fuel industry, including failure to disclose corporate lobbying activities or to provide remedies for harm;
(i) Criminalize media and advertising firms for amplifying disinformation and misinformation by fossil fuel companies;
(j) Criminalize attacks against environmental human rights defenders, including from judicial harassment tactics,192 in addition to enhancing environmental human rights defenders’ protection and access to justice and effective remedies.193
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Read more: https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/59/42
Morgera’s report is available here. Cook’s report, Recommendations for Improving Information Integrity about Climate Issues, is available here.
Cook’s report also calls for more censorship, of course, but you have to wade through over 100 pages of what looks like AI generated gibberish to get to the censorship call;
Legislation and regulation. Legislation represents collectively agreed rules of social and human coexistence, including principles and procedures governing the exchange of information and the expression of opinion. While digital platforms and other media of communication, to an extent, regulate themselves internally and in dialogue with their users, the record regarding information integrity about climate science, as documented in this report, indicates the need for enhanced governance in the public interest.
Read more: John Cook’s report
Despite the absurdity of UN demands for a total stoppage of fossil fuel exploitation, and John Cook’s ongoing global conspiracy claims, the climate censorship movement is a very real threat to our freedom. The censorship movement is much bigger than a bunch of disgruntled academics and big oil conspiracy theorists, and may even threaten free speech in the USA.
In 2024 Elon Musk accused the European Union of offering a secret deal to X, where X would be immune from prosecution for violating Europe’s Digital Services Act, in return for allowing European officials to secretly censor the entire X platform – including content US citizens produce and read. Musk claimed other major social media platforms accepted the secret deal.
If Musk’s claim is true, the only reason the majority of US social media content is not being routinely illegally censored remotely by Europe is Musk had the guts to stand up to the EU, and because President Trump and Vice President Vance backed Musk with threats to withdraw the USA from NATO if Europe persisted with trying to censor free speech.
I applaud people like Musk, Trump and Vance for standing against the forces of global censorship and tyranny, I just wish more global leaders were standing next to them
BOTTOMLINE: “If Musk’s claim is true, the only reason the majority of US social media content is not being routinely illegally censored remotely by Europe is Musk had the guts to stand up to the EU, and because President Trump and Vice President Vance backed Musk with threats to withdraw the USA from NATO if Europe persisted with trying to censor free speech.”
This is not persuasion, the method of reason, this is anti-reason, the method of thugs, who never cared about persuading anyone anyway and always reveled in controlling the ownership of an achiever’s accomplishments.
The UN is political cesspool that can and is used by influencing parties to further political interests. It does more harm than good these days.