The new denial: climate solution misinformation on social media

Non-technical summaryA remarkable shift in climate change misinformation has taken over social media streams. The conversation is no longer totally absorbed with denying that climate change exists. Instead, the ‘New Denial’ is bent on condemning solutions to climate change and their supporters. Our study meticulously analyzed this shift, using extensive methods to untangle the content of over 200,000 Tweets from 2021 to 2023. We found that the New Denial is a heated political debate that often calls up common far-right arguments, falsely accuses climate solutions as ineffective and risky, and attacks climate solution supporters.Technical summaryOver the past five years, a ‘New Denial’ has emerged in regards to climate change misinformation on social media. This shift marks a transition of the dominance of rhetoric centered around denial of climate change science to attacks that seek to undermine and cast doubt on proposed climate solutions and those who support them. While much of the academic literature to date has explored misinformation about climate science, there is a great need to explore this shift and seek out increased understanding of misinformation around climate change solutions specifically. In this paper, we employ a mixed-methods analysis, drawing on data from Twitter from 2021 to 2023, to analyze the content of climate solution misinformation. We find that the New Denial is frequently centered on politically-laden debates nestled in common narratives on the right, often attacking supporters of climate solutions as harbingering ulterior motives for climate solutions that are fundamentally flawed. We use these insights to reflect on targeted interventions for climate solution misinformation on social media.Social media summaryA New Denial is sweeping social media, no longer bent on denying climate science. It’s new target: climate solutions and the people pushing for them.