Climate disinformation was routinely broadcast in news programmes across French TV and radio in the first three months of 2025, with 128 verified cases identified by an alliance of NGOs.
Using AI to identify misleading narratives, which were then reviewed by fact-checkers, the alliance assessed programmes classed as “news” by the French broadcast regulator ARCOM from 19 TV and radio stations.
A preliminary report was produced by the French NGOs Data For Good, QuotaClimat, and Science Feedback. The study also identified 379 cases of ‘discourses of delay’ – arguments intended to slow the transition to carbon neutrality by undermining climate science, solutions or experts – which focused particularly on discrediting advocates of net zero. The final results will be published in September.
“We expected to find cases, but not a finding of this magnitude. It truly reflects how climate disinformation has been underestimated as a threat by the news media,” said Eva Morel, secretary general of QuotaClimat.
“This is a call to action: climate disinformation is being normalised, and we need trusted sources of information to counter it before it is too late.”
The majority of these attacks (61 percent) were aimed at discrediting solutions to the climate crisis, while 13 percent attempted to deny or minimise the scientific consensus on climate change.
Private media companies were responsible for 81 percent of climate disinformation broadcast. One station – Sud Radio – broadcast one-third of all the cases identified by the researchers.
The station, owned by the consultancy firm Fiducial, attracts over 4.5 million monthly listeners, and was the first to receive a warning from the French broadcast regulator ARCOM in 2024 for broadcasting climate science denial. Sud Radio was approached for comment.
The same year, the regulator levied at €20,000 fine against another TV station, CNews, for a similar broadcast violation.
The report highlights how the success of anti-climate political parties across the Western world is fuelling climate disinformation on the news.
The researchers found a “significant spike in climate disinformation” during the week of Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, with almost half of the disinformation referencing the new president’s views on climate change.
“Given the growing influence of governments that openly deny climate change around the world, and the rising media and electoral traction of political parties positioning themselves on this issue, the permeability of traditional media to climate disinformation during geopolitical events is alarming,” the report states.
For example, Philippe Karsenty, the spokesperson for ‘Trump France’, said during an interview with BMFTV on 21 January: “we’ve been lied to for years” about climate change, which the interviewer did not correct.
The report alleges that broadcasting such a comment without a correction is in direct breach of an agreement that BMFTV renewed with ARCOM in December 2024. Namely, the agreement states that BFMTV commits to “ensuring honesty of information in its programming” and “distinguishing between facts and commentary” when presenting on “controversial issues”. BMFTV was approached for comment.
The alliance recommends that newsrooms expand coverage of environmental issues, support journalist training in environmental literacy, and introduce live fact-checking teams for interviews.
The alliance also urges ARCOM to respond to complaints of climate disinformation with “speed and proportionality”. It encourages advertisers to reassess their partnerships with broadcasters who spread climate disinformation and raise concerns with the stations.
The growing prominence of climate disinformation on broadcast channels is an issue across the Western world. As revealed by DeSmog, one-third of presenters on the right-wing platform GB News expressed climate science denial on air in 2022. GB News, which is co-owned by the hedge fund manager Paul Marshall, has given dozens of appearances to groups that reject basic climate facts.
However, the UK’s broadcast regulator Ofcom has so far refused to investigate the channel for spreading false climate claims.
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