New tools to combat environmental fake news
IA, fact-checking, OSINT... For the past two years, thanks to CFI’s Terra Asia project, journalists from Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines have been discovering new tools for detecting fake news relating to climate change. The initial results are in.
On the one side, environmental disinformation and its many guises: denial, downplaying, politicised rhetoric, false claims, “greenwashing”... On the other, journalists with little or no training in climate science, working for media organisations with limited financial resources and who sometimes have to withstand political pressure and public apathy...
Is this uneven fight already lost before it has even begun?
Not necessarily, replies Robert Bourgoing, a CFI trainer working on the Terra Asia project in the Asia-Pacific region (Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines):
Aware of their significant social responsibility, two participants in the training courses say they are ready to take on this challenge. Tri Febriana E.S. Wijaya, a producer at Indonesian national television, explains:
It is our job to provide clear information to separate fact from fiction and thereby distinguish ourselves from social media, for example to help people understand that deforestation causes flooding.
Bathsheba Sanau, Head of the Transport and Industry Department at the NBC (National Broadcasting Corporation), adds:
Back home in Papua New Guinea, there’s a lot of misinformation because the public isn’t very well informed. We have to constantly check that our sources are reliable and carry out fact-checking.
Faster and more efficient
To improve their fact-checking skills, four journalists from each of the four Terra Asia countries, none of whom were specialists in environmental issues to begin with, took part in four training courses in 2025 and 2026: basic concepts of climate change, fact-checking tools and techniques (geolocation, open-source intelligence (OSINT), animations using satellite imagery, mobile journalism and artificial intelligence, etc.
Thanks to AI, we can summarise the main ideas of a 300-page report in simple terms. And, thanks to OSINT, it is now possible to report on tropical forests without having to travel there. It’s amazing what you can do in environmental journalism! All these new tools help to illustrate the impact of humankind on nature, explains Robert Bourgoing.
It seems the participants got the message loud and clear!
We’re not scientists. AI helps us to communicate complex technical concepts relating to climate change more quickly and effectively, says Stella Martin, an NBC journalist in Papua New Guinea. In the media, several managers are already seeing improvements in some of their journalists who have attended training courses.
Journalists are now prioritising interviews with professionals other than government representatives and conducting more research, points out Felix Chaudhary,, acting director-general of the Fijian Broadcasting Corporation (FBC).
Our journalists are now better able to identify fake news, making it more difficult for it to spread, notes Fernando A. Sanga, who writes under the pen name ‘Dindo Amparo’, director-general of the media organisations within the Office of the President (Presidential Broadcast Service-Bureau of Broadcast Services, PBS-BBS) in the Philippines.
Never stop learning
To build on these initial results, the journalists who have completed the training will receive a grant to carry out 10 investigations per country. Robert Bourgoing is looking forward to seeing these productions: In the past, these generalist journalists used to cover floods only occasionally and at a basic level. Thanks to the project, they will be able to describe the causes and solutions in greater depth.
In the meantime, the trainer is already seeing some progress: Some media organisations ask their journalists who take part in training courses to pass on what they have learnt to their colleagues.
Dean Dindo Amparo, who is nearly 60, encourages the sharing of experiences in his group’s media outlets in the Philippines: We want to train our journalists in the regions and set up a fact-checking team at PBS-BBS capable of quickly debunking fake news. My advice to young journalists: Use the new technologies to produce credible content that is useful to the public. Never stop learning, as these technologies are evolving every day. But bear in mind that AI cannot replace the way you, as a human journalist, put your heart and soul into reporting from the field!
Analysis carried out by Emmanuel de Solère Stintzy (Journalistes Médiateurs)