Experts were given the floor on Thursday 21 March at the European Parliament for a public hearing organised by the Parliament's Environment Committee and Committee on Petitions to discuss ways of combating climate change denial and the methods of disinformation used in this area.
Transparency of climate information, improvement of scientific communication to make it more understandable, denial of access to lobbyists from major hydrocarbon companies such as Exxon Mobil to the EU institutions, pressure on GAFA companies to ensure that the major platforms do not contribute to disinformation, were among the areas of action identified.
The event took place “at a time when a large number of young people are making their voices and concerns heard about the challenges facing our planet as a result of climate change”, said the representative of the Committee on Petitions. “Transparent communication is essential to help citizens learn about the science behind the fight against climate change”, added Environment Committee Chair Adina-Ioana Vălean.
According to Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, a Belgian professor of climatology who was vice-president of the IPCC, “statistical lies are widely used by those who cause confusion” - an expression he prefers to that of "negationists" (unsuitable) or "climate sceptics", “since scepticism is at the root of the scientific method”. He added: “Science is quite unequivocal and the work of the IPCC, which has examined the link between temperature increase and the human factor, has made it possible to be more and more aware of the strength of the link between human factors and global warming”.
Responding to questions from MEPs, he suggested that the EU should improve transparency to eliminate doubts, “to make our efforts known, while in the United States, $1 billion a year is spent on climate-confusion activities” to improve access to information for journalists and academics, to take a closer look at the rules for financing political campaigns and the role of lobbies in this funding.
To face those who insinuate doubt or claim that climate policy is not even necessary and is costly, since nothing is proven, Alexander Carius, Adelphi's CEO, called for talking about the cost of climate change: “For Europe, in 2017, it was estimated at 283 billion euros”.
The initiator of a petition submitted to the Parliament in 2016 (732 signatures) on behalf of Food&Water Europe, calling for the institution to act against multinational oil companies denying climate change, deplored the fact that Exxon Mobil declined the invitation to this hearing.
Affirming that Exxon's activities are harmful to the planet and that the company “has spent 35 million euros over the past 9 years to dilute EU climate legislation and disseminate false information”, she felt that the first thing to do would be to remove their six Parliamentary access badges. Exxon should not be able to participate in Parliament or Commission events, any interaction with parliamentarians should be kept to a minimum and lobbyists should not sit on Commission expert groups, she said. Faced with the climate emergency, she said it was necessary to “act in the interest of civil society”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)