Latest news with #climatepolicies
Mail & Guardian
4 days ago
- Politics
- Mail & Guardian
G20 leaders can't tackle the climate crisis without addressing information integrity
Well-financed and coordinated disinformation campaigns by, for example, the fossil fuel industry, spread doubt about the existence of climate change. Photo: File Last year was These doubts do not spread organically based on citizens' concerns, but are pushed by well-financed and coordinated disinformation campaigns. Global research on climate change disinformation confirms that this is a lucrative business. Challenges to information integrity are affecting climate change policies, as argued in the Forum on Information & Democracy's policy brief, ' These issues are three-fold: coordinated, financed and targeted climate disinformation, orchestrated by vested interests, for example, the fossil fuel industry, that directly benefits from delaying climate action, spreads doubt about the existence of climate change or the effectiveness of certain measures. The campaigns exploit a polarised issue and target policy makers with the objective of hindering action. The attention-focused business model of online platforms facilitates their work and brings profits to platforms. Second, attacks against journalists and the crisis of news media are further hampering access to reliable environmental information and investigative reporting on climate scandals. In the past 15 years, 44 environmental journalists around the world were killed and many more were victims of attacks and intimidation, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's (Unesco's) Natural resource extraction occurs to a great extent in countries with little press freedom, making investigations even more difficult. A worldwide economic crisis of the media exacerbates these problems. According to Finally, the media and science suffer from a lack of trust. Only 40% state that they trust the news media, according to the The climate crisis cannot be solved unless we solve the information integrity crisis. As long as the global information space is polluted with false information and doubts, and provides only challenging avenues for reliable climate reporting, it will be difficult to take the needed actions: both citizens and policy-makers will be impacted. The G20 has started recognising the importance of the issue, notably during Brazil's G20 presidency in 2024. The Global Initiative on Information Integrity on Climate Change launched by the government of Brazil, the UN and Unesco aims to contribute to research, communication campaigns and coordinated actions. The South African presidency should follow in these footsteps and encourage all related negotiation groups to recognise the issue and commit to taking action. Their priorities — solidarity, equality, sustainability — cannot be achieved without addressing the global information space and its harmful effect on public debate. In particular, the Sherpa Tracks Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group and Just Energy Transitions Workstream are well-positioned to discuss the issues and make information integrity an integral part of policy debates on climate and the environment. G20 actions must investigate and develop solutions to assess the risk of climate and environmental disinformation on policy-making and the policy debate. Particularly in Global South countries, research is insufficient. The G20 should also look into solutions to co-regulate and regulate the digital space, ensuring that platforms' business models do not continue to exacerbate the crisis but contribute to a healthy public debate based on access to reliable information. Moreover, the G20 must address the attacks against environmental journalists and the sustainability crisis of the news media, providing solutions to protect journalists and journalism in the long run. Finally, debates need to consider how to strengthen access to and trust in reliable information on environmental and climate issues. We therefore recommend that the G20 Heads of States' Declaration includes the following statement in their final declaration: 'We recognise the importance of access to reliable, independent and pluralistic information sources on climate change and environmental issues and will bolster our efforts to ensure the safety of environmental journalists, access to scientific and fact-based information online and to address the root causes of climate disinformation and climate change denialism.' The G20 Summit in South Africa could be an important moment to further the protection of information integrity on climate issues. But efforts need to go beyond the G20. Information integrity needs to become an integral part of all climate negotiations, starting with the forthcoming COP30. Only by addressing the information integrity crisis can we establish a global information ecosystem that contributes to a fact-based and healthy debate on climate policy. Katharina Zuegel is the policy director at the , and lead author of the . The is an independent parallel media initiative to ensure issues relating to media integrity and healthy ecosystems are reflected in the policy agenda of the G20.
Yahoo
04-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Barclays follows HSBC in ditching net zero banks club
Barclays has become the second London-based bank to exit the net zero banks club as the financial services industry continues to row back on climate policies. The FTSE 100 giant – which recorded a £1bn profit jump for the second quarter – said on Friday the UN-convened Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) 'no longer has the membership to support our transition'. This follows Europe's biggest lender HSBC exiting the alliance last month and an exodus of Wall Street's banking giants. Members had faced pressure following the return of President Donald Trump to the White House as the new US administration culled environment, social and governance (ESG) policies along with diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) endeavours. Barclays said it retained its ambition to become a net zero bank by 2050 as well as its goal to mobilise $1tn in sustainable and transition finance by 2030. The bank, along with Natwest, removed climate targets from executive bonuses earlier this year, which was seen as part of the wider reform into pro-environmental measures that companies had baked into their processes A NZBA spokespersin said: 'NZBA remains focused on delivering on the future vision overwhelmingly endorsed by member banks a few months ago. 'It is supporting its members to lead on climate by addressing the barriers preventing their clients from investing in the net-zero transition. As the largest global initiative specifically focused on supporting climate mitigation action by banks, NZBA is uniquely positioned to provide the practical support banks need to grasp the opportunities and manage the risks of the move to net zero.' Trump effect spreads globally reported earlier this year over half of UK senior financial professionals believe their leadership will place less focus on ESG policies in the coming years. Trump's war on DEI and ESG has sent ripple effects through the financial services industry. One of the President's first executive orders upon returning to governance included the removal of the US from the Paris climate agreement Regulators in the London have also softened approaches in the realm. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) said in March after a 'broad range' of feedback and 'expected legislative developments' from the government, they would abort their push to regulate DEI. This included shelving plans to 'name and shame' companies facing investigations, which came under fire from the Square Mile, as well as Westminster. Aside from the UK and US, five of Canada's six largest banks, including BMO, TD, CIBC, Scotiabank and National Bank, announced they would leave the climate group at the beginning of this year. Australia's Macquarie and Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui have also announced exits this year. Sign in to access your portfolio
