Klimafakta

It is entirely legitimate to hold different views on climate policy. CICERO is an independent research institute and is not responsible for the consequences of political decisions. As a climate research institute, our task is to ensure that actors who need it can rely on high-quality knowledge.

Target groups are:

• Opinion leaders in politics, public administration, public debate and social media
• Journalists

An important goal of this project is to understand where and how misinformation and misunderstandings spread, so that we can promote relevant research on current topics. In the project, we use artificial intelligence to gain an overview of and analyse the public conversation, and to help us identify misunderstandings and misinformation, thereby capturing emerging trends.

In the project, we will experiment with various tools such as Civic Lens and CARDS-i-B, and adapt them to the Norwegian climate debate on social media.

Content production

Based on insights from the analysis mentioned above, the project produces knowledge articles with quality-assured climate knowledge. The target audience for these articles is opinion leaders in the climate field and journalists.

The articles will be search-engine optimised and structured in a way that makes them attractive to language models such as ChatGPT and others.

Language models are good at structuring information and prefer to draw on sources that are well structured, verified and authoritative. Examples include Wikipedia, Store norske leksikon and similar sites. We will therefore also devote resources to updating knowledge articles on these platforms.

Information inoculation

One of the few interventions against misinformation with documented effectiveness is so-called information inoculation. The concept was introduced in a paper from Yale Climate Communication and, in brief, involves making the public aware of false claims while also presenting counterarguments. Sander van der Linden, the lead author of the paper, now heads the Cambridge University Social Decision-Making Lab.

Drawing on research from Yale and Cambridge, among others, CICERO will develop messages and communication that strengthen people’s resilience to misinformation.

Participation in public debate

It is well documented that the amount of misinformation is increasing, particularly on social media. At times, it can be difficult to distinguish between misinformation and facts one does not like. Nor is it always easy to agree on what the facts of a matter are.

Openness about work to counter misinformation and greater awareness of genuine disagreements about the evidence base can help strengthen our ability to discuss difficult issues in public forums.

Relationship building

The results of this project are relevant to many organisations and stakeholders. To ensure the greatest possible societal impact from the work undertaken, it is important that we understand the needs of other actors, and that our products and services are known, perceived as relevant and put to use.