UN chief calls for 'fight' against climate disinformation

UN CHIEF Antonio Guterres this week called for a fightback against climate disinformation ahead of next month's COP30 summit after US President Donald Trump branded climate change the "greatest con job ever".

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Guterres issued a robust defence of "clear-eyed" climate science and data, without which, he said, the world would never have understood the emergence of the "dangerous and existential threat of climate change".

"We must fight misand disinformation, online harassment, and greenwashing," Guterres said at the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) weather and climate agency in Geneva.

"Scientists and researchers should never fear telling the truth."

Guterres's remarks will be seen in some quarters as a riposte to Trump's speech at the UN in New York last month, in which the Republican president championed fossil fuels and derided green technologies.

"Climate change - it's the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion," said Trump.