New briefing: Dangerous Distractions

Dangerous Distractions: How agribusiness narratives continue to undermine climate action

Over the past six months our investigations and research on food and climate misinformation have expanded and we’re excited to bring you our latest briefing and event.

In September we released a report exposing the coordinated network behind a misinformation backlash against the EAT-Lancet commission, a scientific commission on healthy and sustainable diets. Then in November we published a briefing analysing meat and dairy industry events in the lead up to COP30 climate conference in Brazil last year.

Today we build on this by exposing the narratives these same vested interests peddled at the COP30 summit itself and at the World Meat Congress held in Brazil the week prior. Despite the scientific consensus that reducing meat production and consumption is essential to meeting the Paris Agreement, major agribusiness representatives and their allies are successfully lobbying at major environmental events to mislead policymakers, protect vested interests and expand meat production.

Our briefing shows how industry giants push the idea that the solution to the sector’s challenges around climate change lies in controlling “the narrative about cattle production”. It also outlines how prominent industry allies continue to try and discredit independent research on sustainable diets and methane emissions, including continuing to attack the findings from the EAT-Lancet Commission.

At COP30 itself the resounding message from industry, backed up by an industry funded film, was to tell a positive story, despite the sector’s pitiful attempts to tackle climate change so far.

In the media

Our research on climate misinformation in the food sector was featured in a Euronews exclusive, highlighting how the meat industry has successfully kept its emissions largely off the climate agenda. The article builds on the findings from our new briefing Dangerous Distractions.

Read the report

Join our webinar: Unpacking food and climate disinformation

We will be unpicking some of these issues and more around food and climate misinformation with an expert panel in our webinar on Tuesday 17 March. This will be a chance to dig into this topic further and discuss how growing government commitments to information integrity on climate change can include food.

With an expert lineup of:

• Charlotte Scaddan, Senior Advisor, UN Information Integrity Initiative
• Thais Lazzeri, CEO & Founder, FALA Impact Studio
• Nusa Urbancic, CEO, Changing Markets Foundation
• Laura Sullivan, Activist and facilitator (Moderator)

Date: Tuesday, 17 March
Time: 2.30pm GMT

Register here