ICFJ-Backed Investigations Expose the Impact of Climate Disinformation Around the Globe

Disinformation about climate change often is spread without regard for human or environmental consequences. Journalists supported by ICFJ+, a venture led by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), Code for Africa and Proto, are exposing this deception through cutting-edge investigative reporting.

Five stories, part of ICFJ's Disarming Disinformation initiative, have sparked positive changes and won national recognition in the journalism community.

"The resources we got from ICFJ and Code for Africa allowed us to dig deep," said Andrew Lehren, a former New York Times and NBC investigative journalist who served as coordinating editor for the reporting projects.

"By teaming together -- newsrooms and reporters in five continents - we could reveal to hundreds of thousands of readers how environmental disinformation is spreading false narratives that lead to deforestation, create pollution and lay waste to protected lands," Lehren noted.

In addition to field reporting, journalists used a combination of techniques provided by ICFJ+, from data analysis and satellite imagery to social media forensics. Their reporting produced tangible results:

• ICFJ's "Disarming Environmental Disinformation" project, which included the five investigative stories, was the runner-up in the 2026 National Headliner Award for "Newspaper International Beat."
• An investigation by Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) won Best Climate Impact Story (small/medium media) at the Asian Media Awards 2025, organized by the World Association of News Publishers for exposing a coordinated climate disinformation campaign.
• In Nigeria, logging was suspended after journalists uncovered the damage caused by deforestation and the deceptions by local leaders to promote logging.
• Prosecutors in Brazil and Bolivia are now probing dubious carbon credit deals that reporters uncovered to be allegedly deceiving indigenous tribes with false promises. The cases are ongoing.
• In Brazil, after an investigation into a bauxite mining company was published, prosecutors are examining whether an indigenous tribe's rights were violated so the company could expand into the Amazon rainforest.

The investigations covered a wide range of environmental disinformation, from social media manipulation to land rights abuses:

"Forest is Life - But Nigeria's Last Rainforest is Falling Fast" explored how illegal logging, mining and agriculture expansion were destroying one of Nigeria's last major rain forests.

Reporting by the Center for Collaborative Journalism, led by Uchenna Igwe, produced a groundbreaking investigation with support from ICFJ+, which supplied the satellite imagery and technical expertise. Reporters uncovered irrefutable evidence that once pristine forests had been reduced to stumps and mud paths.

As part of a disinformation campaign that spread false narratives that clearing the forest would help reduce malaria, government agencies and political leaders created confusion and delayed action, the story found. Illegal logging often was disguised as legal activity and officials shifted blame or denied the extent of the problem.

"Cyberstorm" exposed how coordinated social media campaigns spread climate- change disinformation across Arabic-language platforms.

An investigation by Mohammed Tolba of ARIJ showed that networks of accounts linked to oil interests in Gulf countries promoted conspiracy theories designed to undermine concern about climate change.

Digital forensic analysis of social media did the groundwork, tracking repeated hashtags, synchronized posting times, identical language and recurring narratives tied to climate denial or oil interests.

The report noted that accounts on the social media platform X, based in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, ran disinformation campaigns, and that some accounts "belonged to people holding official positions."

An investigation focused on Brazil and Bolivia shed light on dubious carbon deals in the Amazon's Indigenous lands.

In Mongabay's story "How a 'Green Gold Rush' in the Amazon Led to Dubious Carbon Deals on Indigenous Lands," Gloria Pallares describes how locals were duped into signing questionable long-term contracts affecting their forests without realizing the consequences.

Sources from the Indigenous community, company officials, investors, regulators and environmental experts clearly exposed the unequal relationship between corporations and Indigenous communities and the price they were paying.

Indonesia's nickel industry in Weda Bay used social media and online influencers to improve its image while playing down environmental damage, an investigation found.

Chinese-backed companies now dominate Indonesia's nickel field, with the government promoting the industry as essential for economic growth and "green energy transition." Ika Ningtyas's "A Nickel Company Polishes Their Image in Weda Bay," published by Tempo, revealed a different reality.

Mining of nickel - one of the key components of electrical batteries - and industrial operations around Weda Bay, one of the world's largest nickel processing hubs, contribute to deforestation and destruction of rainforest ecosystems, pollutions affecting air and water quality, health concerns for residents and disruptions of Indigenous and local communities. The reporting laid bare the impact disinformation was having.

"The fight against invisibility in the Trombetas River region" found that a bauxite mining company operating in Brazil's Amazon is circumventing the legal rights of indigenous communities as it pursues a major mine expansion.

According to reporting in Sumaúma by Hyury Potter, a bauxite mining company sidestepped an international treaty guaranteeing Indigenous and tribal peoples meaningful consultation before projects affecting their land can proceed.

Several communities were excluded from consultations entirely, the investigation found, but the government's environmental regulator issued a permit anyway. Brazil's Federal Prosecutor's Office has since recommended suspending the permit, finding the process incomplete.

As these stories illustrate, climate disinformation has real-life consequences impacting lives, ecosystems and economies. Exposing it through independent, quality reporting is the first line of defense.