How to Improve Access to Climate Information and Curb Misinformation in the MENA Region: Internews' Latest Research

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is extremely vulnerable to climate change—despite contributing less than 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Rising temperatures are having a serious effect on food and water security; coastal areas in the region could see a 40% drop in winter rainfall in coming years, dramatically affecting the region’s agricultural productivity. 

As climate impacts increase, so does mis/disinformation, such as misleading information that emerged online following the 2023 earthquake in Morocco, including fake evacuation alerts, old videos of buildings in Casablanca collapsing that were reshared as if they were new, and misleading reports about hospitals being at capacity. In this landscape, news organizations and journalists in the MENA region often lack the resources, knowledge or capacity to report relevant and accurate climate-related information, or to fact check stories that may contain falsities. 

In this event, Internews’ MENA Program and the Earth Journalism Network launched our new research report, “Climate Journalism in Iraq, Morocco and Yemen in an Era of Misinformation,” which seeks to understand how journalists think about reporting on climate change and how they find, use and verify scientific information. 

In this engaging discussion, we talked about key findings and recommendations from the report, and where we should go from here. We explored how journalists and newsrooms can enhance their ability to produce accurate, evidence-based stories and welcomed insights and questions from the audience.

Please note the event was held in Arabic. Interpretation into English was provided here.