Fact-Checking Fossil Fuel Claims to Uncover Health Harms

The Stanley Center for Peace and Security, in partnership with the Global Climate and Health Alliance, the United Nations Development Programme, and Climate Action Against Disinformation will host an invitation-only workshop during Climate Week in New York City. This workshop aims to address and counteract the strategic disinformation campaigns, greenwashing, and influence-peddling employed by the fossil fuel industry to manipulate public perception and policymaking, ultimately stalling essential climate action. A specific focus will be on health harms and the potential role of health professionals in counteracting these narratives, drawing on key learnings from other health areas (e.g. disinformation on vaccines and tobacco) and partnering with new organizations (e.g. fact checkers). Specifically, the workshop will bring together health leaders, climate focused organizations, and media and fact-checking organizations to discuss strategies to dispel the fossil fuel industry’s claims, myths, and narratives established over decades via sustained propaganda and highlight the associated damages done, especially health harms.

As the world faces the urgent challenges of climate change and environmental degradation, raising awareness among the public and policymakers about the tactics used to delay climate action is critical. Coordination among a larger network is needed to develop strategies that counter these harmful narratives, and the organizers hope to leverage the collective skills and knowledge of the health, climate, media and communications, and political fact-checking communities to this end.