Belém, Brazil — As the COP30 negotiations entered their final 48 hours, climate activist Greta Thunberg and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz found themselves engulfed in separate examples of how social media posts, regardless of their accuracy, can mislead not only the public but also newsrooms and politicians.
First came online rumors that Thunberg was coming to Belém to join the November 15 protest march demanding that governments deliver real climate solutions at COP30. Not only was Thunberg allegedly coming, but, according to the rumors, she was coming by airplane, violating her longstanding refusal to fly on account of aviation’s outsized carbon emissions. More than one reporter covering the protest said their editors told them to keep an eye out for her. Brazil’s minister of the environment, the former deforestation activist Marina Silva, even posted a social media message welcoming Thunberg to Brazil. Silva removed the post after Fridays For Future, the activist group Thunberg helped found, issued a statement clarifying that Thunberg would not be at the conference.
Meanwhile, Chancellor Merz sparked outrage for a perceived insult of the COP30 host city. Speaking to a business conference in Berlin after returning from the summit, Merz praised Germany as “one of the most beautiful countries in the world,” adding that “not one of” the journalists who had traveled with him to COP30 wanted to stay in Belém afterwards. Heard in context, the chancellor was making a larger point about the affection Germans have for their homeland and the importance of defending its territory, freedom, and democracy from the rise of neo-Nazis at home and Russian aggression abroad. But a 23-second clip of his remark about the journalists not wanting to stay in Belém went viral, was amplified by mainstream media in Brazil and then by international media, and ultimately triggered a jocular rebuke from Brazil’s president Lula.
With billions of social media users relying on cell phones as “their primary window on the world,” journalists have to find ways to marry journalism’s professional ethics and practices with the communications savvy and massive reach of social media influencers, said Imelda Abano, the Internews Earth Journalism Network Program Manager for the Philippines, at a COP30 side event. Abano helped establish EJN’s “Earth Shorts,” a pilot project providing journalistic training to eight Filipino content creators. After the training — led by mentors and focused on basic skills like fact checking and script writing — the influencers produced videos on subjects ranging from the methane emissions of cattle to the marine riches of the Philippines. “The biggest lesson I learned is that facts alone aren’t enough,” said Pierre Arguelles, a content creator and zero waste advocate, in a video about the Earth Shorts project. “Our audience needs to feel the sense of urgency through compelling narratives and relatable calls to action.”
“We journalists can learn a lot from content creators on how to connect with audiences experiencing news fatigue, and content creators should learn from us on the discipline of verifying each bit of information they put out,” mentor Jacque Manabat said in the video. Earth Journalism Network hopes to expand Earth Shorts to other countries. Challenging issues remain, including content creators’ tendency to lean further into activism than some mainstream journalists might like. But with misinformation posing ever greater risks to a factually informed public that is essential to democratic decision making, journalists and news outlets everywhere could benefit by learning from experiments like Earth Shorts.
From Us
COP30 dispatches. CCNow’s executive director Mark Hertsgaard is in Belém and has been talking with climate journalists from around the world about their experiences covering COP in a series of short videos. Check them out.
Radar Clima webinar. Acompaña a CCNow en una sesión de una hora el 2 de diciembre a las 12pm ET sobre los resultados de la COP30 y cómo desarrollar historias humanas y con el foco en las soluciones. En este seminario web analizaremos los principales resultados, acuerdos y desencuentros de Belém y cómo convertirlos en coberturas relevantes, humanas, y centradas en las soluciones. RSVP.
Value of climate journalism event. At this pivotal moment in American history, climate journalism is more essential than ever. Join CCNow’s Kyle Pope on December 3 at 8pm ET, in conversation with leading voices in environmental reporting and activism — Bill McKibben, Adam Mahoney, Sammy Roth, and Amy Westervelt — to examine how journalists can deepen public understanding, hold power to account, and inspire meaningful climate action. RSVP.
Noteworthy Stories
Roadmap. More than 80 countries, including Germany, the UK, Kenya, and Sweden, are pushing for countries to sign on to a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels. “Reducing dependence on fossil fuels ‘must be at the heart of this COP,’” urged UK energy secretary Ed Miliband. By Attracta Mooney and Kenza Bryan for the Financial Times…
Opening paths. “There is a difference between being present and being heard,” writes Wajã Xipai, an Indigenous Brazilian journalist, about his experience covering the COP30 negotiations. He talks with some of the thousands of Indigenous people in Belém this week who are demanding to participate in negotiations to save the Amazon.
Progress. Following a peaceful protest, Brazil’s COP30 president, André Corrêa do Lago; minister of Indigenous peoples, Sonia Guajajara; and minister of the environment and climate change, Marina Silva, met with the Munduruku Indigenous leaders and promised the demarcation of their lands. By Fábio Bispo for InfoAmazonia…
Lobbyist COP. New analysis finds that more than 1,600 fossil fuel lobbyists were accredited to attend this week’s COP30 in Belém, “significantly outnumbering every single country’s delegation apart from the host Brazil.” A joint investigation by DeSmog and The Guardian finds that more than 300 industrial agriculture lobbyists attended — up 14% from COP29 last year. By Rachel Sherrington and Nina Lakhani for DeSmog…
We’ll be back. Todd Stern, former US climate envoy attending COP30 as part of the subnational America Is All In delegation, told Shanghai-based The Paper’s Liu Dong, that he believes America will return to the climate diplomacy stage after the next presidential election.
China. While the Trump administration has “slammed the door on clean energy,” China’s COP30 delegation — the second largest behind host country Brazil — is touting its batteries, electric cars, and solar products to the world. In a rare interview, China’s top COP delegate Liu Zhenmin called the European Union climate goals “not so good” and harshly criticized what he called Trump’s “bad example.” By Zia Weise for Politico Europe…
Quote of the Week
“Saudi Arabia appears to be determined to veto the effort to solve the climate crisis, only to protect their lavish income from selling the fossil fuels that are the principal cause of the climate crisis. I hope that the rest of the world will stand up to this obscene greed and recklessness on the part of the kingdom.”
— Former US vice president Al Gore told The Financial Times
Resources & Events
Negotiation tracker. At any COP, the language in the draft negotiations is the thing to watch, “where diplomats from nearly 200 nations haggle over every paragraph and each individual verb.” Track the texts with Carbon Brief’s interactive.
Climate-flation. Just in time for US Thanksgiving, in a new edition of Climate Matters, Climate Central lays out the connections between agriculture and emissions — food systems account for about one-quarter of all heat-trapping pollution — and climate change and food prices. Read more.
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