by Hélène Goyat
Interview with Eva Morel, co-founder of Quota Climat
(Interview recorded on the 25/02/2025)
During her role as parliamentary assistant in France, Eva Morel discovered the role media and journalists play in bringing climate issues to the political agenda. In 2022, she co-founded the organisation called Quota Climat, which works to improve media coverage of environmental topics through national, European, and international advocacy, outreach and data production.
“Our freedom of expression shouldn’t contradict our right to good information”, Eva Morel (E.M.), co-founder of Quota Climat.
“Climate change is a really particular and efficient topic to polarize opinion because it pushes on specific fears and values” (E.M.)
"We know for example that people are afraid to lose their individual freedoms, so it is easy for people trying to polarize the debate to push on those specific topics, and this is what they are doing" (E.M.)
"These actors are also trying to defame and discredit the voice of environmental defenders, scientists, NGOs, political leaders that are positioned on environmental subjects and propositions." (E.M.)
"The difference between facts and opinions should prevent these narratives from emerging because it allows for specific regulations to be put in place. [...] We don't restrict freedom of speech and other values we are attached to, but try to position regulation in this difference." (E.M.)
To find out more about Quota Climat's work:
- https://www.quotaclimat.org/qui-sommes-nous
Other links:
- The Digital Services Act: https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age/digital-services-act_en
- The Climate Action Against Disinformation coalition: https://caad.info/
[Editor's note: at 10mn55s, the fine to CNews amounted to 20 000 euros, Source: https://vert.eco/articles/eva-morel-de-quotaclimat-cnews-est-lembleme-de-la-polarisation-de-lopinion]
Interview with Alfie Chadwick, PhD student at CliComm
(Interview recorded on the 06/03/2025)
Alfie is a PhD student at CliComm (Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub). With a background in software engineering, he brings a technical perspective to the study of climate communication, blending data-driven approaches with societal insights. Before beginning his PhD, Alfie spent several years at CliComm working on groundbreaking projects designed to detect and debunk climate change misinformation. This experience deepened his commitment to combating misinformation and inspired his current research into the role of media in shaping public understanding of climate issues. Nowadays, Alfie’s PHD research focuses on the automated analysis of climate change coverage in Australian news media.
"With misinformation nowadays, it's a lot about creating confusion, so being able to have a clear narrative helps cut through the fog [...] of misleading facts and helps [people] make the informed decisions they need to participate in democracy", Alfie Chadwick (A.C.), PhD student at CliComm
“We work as an education and communication program, being able to transfer the science into something that people can understand [...] and make informed decisions and build resilience against mis- and dis-information.”, A.C.
Alfie mentions the research done at CliComm, where they looked into who the public trusts in terms of climate messaging. They found these people were usually radio presenters, or weather people (people you would wake up listening to in the morning, or in the evenings when turning your TV on): CliComm looks for ways to partner with them in order to deliver clear climate messaging where it might not have been the case before, and put weather into the context of climate, by giving weather presenters clear graphs and data that is easily understandable by the general public.
This Flagship Communications program is planned to operate in six regions across Asia, Europe, UK, the Americas, Africa and Oceania and will train Universities in how to deliver high impact, non-partisan communications on climate to public audiences.
To find out more about CliComm's work:
- The MCCCRH website: https://www.monash.edu/mcccrh
Other links:
- The Skeptical Science website, launched by John Cook: https://skepticalscience.com/about.shtml
Climate Action Collective
