By Leticia Capone e Agnes Franco Originally published on misinformer

The realization of COP30 in BelemLocated in the heart of the Amazon, this event carries inestimable symbolic power. It is a historic opportunity to discuss life on the planet from the perspective of a biome suffering the direct effects of the climate emergency, highlighting the voices of local populations, the wisdom of indigenous and traditional peoples, and the urgency of a new civilizational model.

The urgency is global. Global Risks Report 2025According to the World Economic Forum, five of the top ten risks for the next decade are environmental – including extreme weather events, biodiversity loss, and critical changes to Earth systems. Intertwined with these is one of the biggest crisis accelerators: misinformation, ranked as the fifth greatest long-term global risk. However, UNESCO considers it the greatest global risk in 2025 and beyond, ahead of the climate emergency itself, violence, or any other issue.

However, this extremely important debate is being systematically undermined. We are currently facing a double challenge regarding COP30. The first, concrete obstacle encompasses logistical challenges and the progress of negotiations. The second, abstract and far more dangerous, is a crisis of narratives – which directly influences multilateral negotiations. Content is being deliberately exploited, distorted, and amplified by a disinformation machine to fabricate meanings and significances that diminish the importance of the event.

This instrumentalization is not naive: it serves clear interests. In Brazil, opposition political actors use the event as a platform to attack the federal government. Simultaneously, economic sectors linked to a predatory development model, such as certain sectors of agribusiness, mining companies, and the fossil fuel industry, promote the false dichotomy between preservation and prosperity (generally limited to a shallow concept of development), as they see the environmental regulation agenda as a threat to their profits.

The recognition of this threat – the vulnerability of public debate, amplified by misinformation – is so clear that, for the first time, information integrity was included on the official agenda of COP30. This risk is particularly important in Brazil, a continental country with very distinct social, economic, cultural, environmental, and communicational realities, which makes our information ecosystem complex and fragmented. Addressing misinformation in public debate is no longer a secondary issue: it is a central condition for the success of climate negotiations and for the full exercise of the right to communication by all citizens.

It was in this setting that the Network of Partners for Information Integrity on Climate ChangeStructured as a representation of civil society and academia within the Brazilian Chapter of the Global Initiative, launched by the federal government, the UN, and UNESCO, RPIIC is today an autonomous coalition that brings together more than 130 organizations, including academia and civil society organizations with representation from all five Brazilian regions.

Our work is structured around six integrated areas to advance the agenda: Research and Monitoring of the Digital Public Debate; Strategic Communication; Sustainability of Journalism and Protection of Communicators and Environmentalists; Accountability and Protection of Rights; Incentives for Information Integrity; and Media, Environmental and Climate Change Education.

For COP30, we are preparing concrete deliverables, such as the Guide for Legal Action for the Integrity of Climate Information; the Commitment Letter for Advertisers, Platforms and Companies; the Overview of the Digital Debate on Climate in Brazil; Recommendations to promote the integrity of information on climate change through the sustainability of journalism and the protection of journalists, communicators and environmentalists; and the Technical Note in Support of the Draft Decree on Greenwashing.

The location of COP in the Amazon is the most concrete response to misinformation, as it replaces abstract debate with the tangible reality of the forest. The legacy of this event will not be measured by the quality of the hotels, but by our ability to ensure that the truth of the forest peoples, the waters, and the traditional territories resonates louder than the noise of those who profit from destruction. Despite all the difficulties, social and popular movements have organized themselves, as they did at Eco-92 and Rio+20. But the meeting of all these leaders in the Amazon, in such sacred territory, has a potential that we are not yet able to measure. Influence and articulation are the keynotes of this connection. RPIIC is committed to strengthening the aspirations of civil society, hoping that in the coming days we will find affection among ourselves and even more courage to face any threat to the necessary advances for global or local governance.