Press Release: New HEAT Report Uncovers Strategic Climate Disinformation Campaigns Across Europe

London, 23 June 2025 – A landmark investigation from the HEAT (Harmful Environmental Agendas and Tactics) project reveals how domestic and foreign actors are strategically deploying climate disinformation across Europe, eroding trust in institutions and stalling critical climate action.

Drawing from extensive research in Germany, France, and the Netherlands, the report demonstrates that climate disinformation has evolved beyond denial, now using climate narratives to polarise public opinion, exploit cultural tensions, and undermine support for the Green Deal.

"What stood out was how quickly fringe climate conspiracies moved across borders and platforms, blending into mainstream discourse." a Logically researcher for HEAT said. "These narratives aren’t random, they’re shaped to tap into local fears and frustrations, making them harder to dislodge."

Cross-National Findings

• Fringe climate conspiracies such as geoengineering and "climate lockdowns" are now mainstream, gaining traction via platforms like Facebook and Telegram.
• Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour (CIB), including fake accounts and networked reposts, was identified on Facebook and X, benefiting from platforms’ moderation gaps.
• The Russia-linked Portal Kombat network amplified multilingual disinformation using a low-cost, agile strategy through Telegram and rebranded Pravda domains.
• Enforcement under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) remains inconclusive. Climate disinformation is not currently treated as a systemic risk, limiting platform accountability.

Country-by-Country Highlights

Germany

• Hashtags such as #GrünerMist ("Green Crap") and #Klimadiktatur ("climate dictatorship") were used widely in conspiracy-linked Telegram channels, linking climate policy to authoritarian control.
• A recurring narrative claimed that Germany’s energy transition (Energiewende) and the Building Heating Act (Heizungsgesetz) would bankrupt households and de-industrialise the economy. These policies were portrayed as economically ruinous and socially destabilising, reinforcing fears that climate action would come at an unsustainable societal cost.

France

• Climate policy was linked to "deep state" and "Great Reset" narratives, resonating particularly with rural audiences and groups linked to the Yellow Vest movement.
• Fringe French-language platforms were central in promoting the idea that environmental regulation would lead to societal collapse.

Netherlands

• The nitrogen crisis was reframed as a government overreach, fuelling narratives of land theft and loss of sovereignty.
• "Climate lockdowns" gained attention by tying pandemic-related fears to environmental policy in emotive and conspiratorial ways.

Policy Recommendations

HEAT urges EU institutions to act decisively:

• Recognise climate disinformation as a systemic risk under the DSA to ensure consistent platform oversight.
• Mandate transparency from platforms, including researcher access to data, algorithm audits, and public reporting on content moderation.
• Monitor and counter foreign influence operations, especially those linked to Russian-aligned networks that undermine EU climate efforts.

"We saw disinformation actors using low-effort tactics like copypasta to amplify misleading climate narratives quickly and widely." said another Logically researcher for the HEAT project. "These patterns often evade standard moderation systems, highlighting the need for climate disinformation to be recognised as a systemic risk and addressed with more targeted oversight mechanisms."

About HEAT
The HEAT project is supported by the European Media and Information Fund (EMIF)* and delivered by a cross-national team of experts in open-source intelligence, digital risks, and narrative analysis. The public can access the full report on this link. 

*This project is supported by the European Media and Information Fund (EMIF), managed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the European University Institute.

The sole responsibility for any content supported by the European Media and Information Fund lies with the author(s) and it may not necessarily reflect the positions of the EMIF and the Fund Partners, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the European University Institute

The sole responsibility for any content supported by the European Media and Information Fund lies with the author(s) and it may not necessarily reflect the positions of the EMIF and the Fund Partners, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the European University Institute

Media Contact:
Logically Press Team
press@logically.ai
Link for the full report