Climate Misinformation Fuelling Community Conflict in Australia, Inquiry Finds

Australia’s climate misinformation crisis threatens renewable energy progress, Senate inquiry finds

Australia is experiencing a growing crisis of climate change and energy misinformation that actively fuels community conflict and undermines the nation’s response to the climate emergency, according to a cross-party Senate inquiry that released its findings Tuesday evening.

The inquiry’s final report concludes that the spread of false or misleading information is creating public confusion, delaying renewable energy projects, and hampering critical policy initiatives aimed at addressing climate change. After examining evidence from more than 240 stakeholders and conducting eleven days of public hearings, the committee has issued a series of recommendations to combat what it describes as a deteriorating “information ecosystem.”

Among the key proposals, the report calls for the Australian government to strengthen regulations that would hold technology companies liable for “psychosocial harms” spread on their platforms. The committee also recommended enhancing media literacy through the national school curriculum and increasing oversight when corporations engage with classrooms.

“Protecting and strengthening information integrity in our politics and exposing the groups who serve to benefit from undermining it must be a priority in the battle for our democracy and for a safe climate future,” said committee chair and retiring Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson.

The inquiry heard substantial evidence pointing to what Whish-Wilson described as a “denial machine” of conservative think tanks, public relations firms, consultancies, interest groups, and certain media outlets that have systematically worked to obstruct climate and energy policy in Australia for decades.

The committee expressed particular concern about the growing use of artificial intelligence by groups seeking to block climate progress, warning this technology is likely to further threaten information integrity in public discourse about environmental issues.

In response to these challenges, the report recommends increased funding for research into misinformation and disinformation, along with the development of an independent effort to “track hidden digital influence systems.” It also urges Australia to sign the UN declaration launched in Brazil in 2025, which commits nations to combat climate misinformation.

Independent senator David Pocock and progressive Liberal senator Andrew McLachlan supported the report but argued its recommendations didn’t go far enough. “The evidence presented to the committee does not point to a marginal problem requiring modest adjustment,” they wrote in additional comments. “It points to a systemic failure, one that is already distorting public debate, undermining trust in institutions, and delaying urgent policy action.”

Not all committee members endorsed the findings. Nationals leader Matt Canavan issued a dissenting report claiming the inquiry showed bias and attempted to “suppress, ridicule and silence anyone who expresses different views from the current scientific consensus.” One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts also dissented, falsely claiming human emissions have “no effect on atmospheric Carbon Dioxide levels.”

The inquiry’s findings come as the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group, comprising defense, security and policy experts, released a separate report describing climate disinformation as “evolving from a communications issue into a national security challenge.”

Retired admiral Chris Barrie, former chief of the Australian Defence Force, warned that Australia faces an “unprecedented energy crisis” worsened by fossil fuel dependency and “a climate disinformation war globally and in Australia that is actively undermining the capacity to build a renewable, clean-energy future and curb coal and gas exports.”

Major technology companies including Meta, TikTok, and Google provided evidence to the inquiry, as did Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which defended its editorial practices while rejecting accusations it was part of a climate “denial machine.”

The Guardian has approached Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen for comment on the inquiry’s findings and recommendations.