The United Nations has launched new global priorities at COP31 to ensure that artificial intelligence (AI) provides reliable information on climate change and promotes transparency about its environmental impact.

The Independent International Scientific Panel on AI warned that producing fluent text is easier than producing factual information. 

It noted that the risks could heighten during climate disasters, when AI-generated images and videos spread faster than official warnings.

In response to the concerns,  the priorities put forward by the Global Initiative’s co-chairs Brazil, the UN and UNESCO, are based on transparency, accountability and human rights. They require AI companies to assess how their systems affect climate information integrity and publish the findings. 

They also require the companies to disclose their energy use and carbon, water and land footprints. Governments are expected to integrate information integrity into their national AI strategies and climate plans.

Beyond the use of AI, the initiative also seeks to address the role of digital advertising in spreading climate disinformation as the advertising supply chain lacks transparency, making it difficult for brands to know who and what their money funds, including climate disinformation.

The Charter for Climate Information Integrity in Advertising, launched by the Conscious Advertising Network (CAN) and Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD), with support from the Global Initiative, proposes four major measures.

These include transparency across the advertising supply chain, verification of all advertisers on digital platforms, action against greenwashing and public disclosure of advertising actors’ relationships with fossil fuel companies.

Germany committed €2 million to the Global Fund for Information Integrity on Climate Change, administered by UNESCO, to support research, develop communication strategies and undertake public awareness campaigns. The initiative urged other countries to invest in the fund.

Since the information integrity entered a COP outcome decision at COP30 in Belém, 29 countries and the European Union have signed up to it and begun implementing its provisions. The Belém Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change remains open to further endorsements.