EU DisInfo Lab 2025 ‘Climate disinformation’ and the toughening fight for climate action

In a bid to explore the evolving landscape of disinformation, the counter-disinformation community gathered at the EU DisInfo Lab in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on October 15 and 16

One of the most notable discussions was with regard to climate disinformation strategies promoted by the fossil fuel industry

Whistleblower accounts reveal more and more financial manipulation from the fossil fuel industry

The fossil fuel industry distorts public perception through credibility laundering, misleading framing, and shifting blame to consumers

In a bid to explore the evolving landscape of disinformation, the counter-disinformation community gathered at the EU DisInfo Lab in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on October 15 and 16. The event witnessed the gathering of leading specialists from varied backgrounds, tackling the most pressing issues in the disinformation landscape.

The two-day event included panel discussions on key issues pertaining to countering disinformation using AI, discourses on accountability, disinformation revolving around health systems, Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI), climate disinformation and so on.

One of the most notable discussions was with regard to climate disinformation strategies promoted by the fossil fuel industry to change the existing narrative around climate change. Whistleblower accounts reveal more and more financial manipulation from the fossil fuel industry, which fuels public mistrust. Alongside all these challenges, the worlds need new strategies and practical tools that will help people fight for climate action. 

Speaking at a panel titled ‘The Usual Suspects: Climate Edition’ at DisInfo2025, Lindsey Gulden, a trained climate scientist and a whistleblower against the fossil fuel industry, shed light on her work on climate disinformation and false solutions brought forward by oil and gas companies. 

Gulden was employed at a leading oil company for over 10 years, but she was later fired after she revealed a USD 10 billion fraud. “I’ve mostly been questioned for working for an oil and gas company while being a climate scientist. But most oil and gas companies often think they are the ‘good guys’,” she said.

“The truth is that climate change is happening, burning fossil fuels causes climate change, climate change is an existential threat to ecosystems and our civilisations, and stopping climate change requires stopping burning fossil fuels. But oil and gas companies in the fossil fuel industry have embarked on a campaign against the truth with disinformation about climate change,” Gulden added. 

Years of research on trends of climate disinformation reveal that fossil fuel companies often claim that climate change isn’t real, that fossil fuels don’t contribute to climate change and that it is manageable with technology and that fossil fuel production is compatible with climate action.

“The truth is that climate change is happening, burning fossil fuels causes climate change, climate change is an existential threat to ecosystems and our civilisations, and stopping climate change requires stopping burning fossil fuels. But oil and gas companies in the fossil fuel industry have embarked on a campaign against the truth with disinformation about climate change,”- Lindsey Gulden, Trained Climate Scientist

Gulden further said that post-1980s, when the research establishment brought climate change to the attention of the general public and policymakers, the fossil fuel industry then began an active campaign of denial and doubt about climate change. 

She also shed light on how fossil fuel companies publish sponsored content to change the narrative, talking about their aspiration to bring about energy efficiency and corporate responsibility. She revealed how companies hired legit climate scientists to sound more credible when phrasing their narratives around climate disinformation.

In her presentation, she also spoke about disinformation trends brought about by the fossil fuel industry in the form of feigned corporations and credibility laundering, where they imply that they would solve the problem at hand. She highlighted ‘misleading framing’ - a cognitive bias where the way information is presented influences decisions and how people interpret it. “Inversion of blame is another way in which the fossil fuel industry deflects responsibility for their own mistakes and puts the blame on others, sometimes the consumers themselves. A major part of their rhetoric is to also frame fossil fuels as a moral necessity,” she further stressed.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mirror, Gulden said that the most challenging aspect of becoming a whistleblower has been to see the truth and not have the capability to broadcast it to shake the lawmakers out of taking funding from oil companies and making bad decisions that are not in the community’s interest. “Most people are unable to do whistleblower activities because they don’t have a support system. My job skills are transferable; I can apply data science anywhere. I work in a community with good public schools, and I have the ability to say ‘Stop that!’ But if you’re a Boeing aeroplane mechanical engineer, you can’t be hired anywhere else. If you’re the sole breadwinner of a family, you don’t have the option to stand up. But because I have a good support network, I have an obligation to stand up,” she said in response to a query on challenges about being a whistleblower against the fossil fuel industry. 

When asked how the public could differentiate between fabricated narratives and the truth, Gulden said that the oil and gas industry does not have your best interests at heart. “They want to make money, and they are not good actors. There are clean, renewable and reliable sources of energy that everyone deserves access to; that wouldn’t cause air pollution, damage the climate and make floods more likely. They don’t have as much money and aren’t loud enough. Look where the interests lie. Some oil and gas companies have alternatives, such as natural gas, which seems good in the moment but people need to demand their elected officials to push for better alternatives because no one deserves to suffer the effects of climate change. The people who suffer the effects of climate change the most are people who are impoverished and those who don’t have the resources to defend themselves against the very rich fossil fuel industry,” she underscored.