Grantee	Center for Digital Society (CfDS) Universitas Gadjah Mada
Project Title	Tackling Climate Misinformation in Indonesia
Amount Awarded	USD 30,000
Dates covered by this report:	2023-01-01 to 2024-02-29
Report submission date	2024-03-19
Economies where project was implemented	Indonesia
Project leader name	Novi Kurnia
Project Team	Ayu Pratiwi Treviliana Eka Putri Amelinda Pandu Kusumaningtyas Firya Qurratu'ain Abisono Alfredo Putrawidjoyo Muhammad Perdana Sasmita-jati Karim Bhredipta Cresti Socarana

Project Summary

Misinformation is one of the most common challenges in digital technology developments today. Of the various misinformation circulating quickly in Indonesia, misinformation regarding the climate crisis is often considered harmless, with low risks and less visibility compared to the COVID-19 pandemic or political misinformation, whose risks are more visible. Climate crisis misinformation has the potential to trigger environmental damage and catalyst important changes to the earth's ecosystem that will harm humans and other living creatures.

This "Tackling Misinformation on the Climate Crisis in Indonesia" research was conducted based on concerns about the spread of climate misinformation, and the fact that efforts to counter it are still quite limited. This fact is exacerbated by the findings of survey-based research conducted by YouGov, which states Indonesia has the highest number of climate-change deniers (climate crisis deniers) in the world and has a high potential for believing and spreading climate crisis misinformation. The climate crisis misinformation phenomenon is noteworthy for two reasons. First, climate crisis misinformation makes people doubt and more in doubt about the climate crisis consensus. Second, climate crisis misinformation makes people distrust the science of the climate crisis. Hence, climate crisis misinformation directly impacts sustaining the climate crisis and hindering climate crisis action or policy.

First, how are the understanding, consumption patterns, and digital literacy skills of Indonesian internet users related to misinformation about the climate crisis? Second, what are the various types of climate crisis misinformation found and verified by various reliable fact-checking sources in Indonesia?

The first question was answered by conducting an online survey in August and September 2023 with 2,401 respondents. The majority of respondents were women (63.2%), single (56.9%), undergraduate graduates (34.7%), and Gen Z (51.6%). Some of the important findings of this research are:

1. 24.2% of respondents believe that "the climate crisis is an artificial phenomenon created by global rulers" which leads to believe in global conspiracy theories
2. A third of respondents (21.5% agree and 11% strongly agree ) have the perception that the climate crisis is caused by more people committing immoral acts and not obeying their religion
3. More than 25% of respondents agree  that climate crisis research by academics are  controlled by elites
4. More than half of respondents (63.5%) answered that social media was their main source of information regarding the climate crisis information
5. More than a quarter of respondents, 19.9% agreed and 6.6% strongly agreed,  government efforts reducing fuel emissions is a contradiction to a democratic way of life
6. Almost half of respondents (47.1%) stated that they had searched for information related to the climate crisis with less intensity
7. Almost all respondents (98%) admitted that they had found misinformation climate crisis content on social media
8. The majority of respondents, almost 74% of respondents said they were confident in their ability to identify climate crisis misinformation on social media
9. More than half of respondents (62.3%) only get to truth verifying stage of the information
10. Only a small portion of respondents (20%) created counter-narrative content to fight back climate crisis misinformation

The second question was answered through content analysis of 123 items of climate misinformation content (climate crisis, global warming, and natural disasters). The data was obtained from four fact-checking website pages, namely: www.cekcepat.com, www.turnbackhoax.id, www.jalahoaks.jakarta .go.id, and www.saberhoaks.jabarprov.go.id. Some of the findings of this content analysis are:

1. There are seven climate crisis misinformation content types were found, namely: satirical/parody content, wrong connections, misleading content, wrong context, impostor content, manipulated content, and fake content,
2. Climate misinformation content have three main themes of relevance, namely religion, politics, and climate-alarmism (climate alarmism)
3. Misinformation content often includes name, figures, source, or authority that related to issues about false information
4. The four fact-check pages did not find much climate misinformation compared to other issues. However, climate crisis misinformation is often related to political misinformation
5. Literacy and critical thinking skills are important to prevent the spread of climate misinformation.

This research offers both academic and practical recommendations. Academically, this research needs to be followed up with mapping policies research for preventing and handling environmental misinformation that not only includes climate crisis misinformation but also general climate, disasters, and global warming misinformation. This research recommends preventing and handling climate crisis misinformation involving various stakeholders such as government, educational institutions, various related communities (Environment, Fact Checking, Digital Literacy, and other relevant communities), religious and community leaders, social influencers, and internet users. Various programs that can be carried out to prevent misinformation on the climate crisis include fact-checking, media monitoring, providing adequate climate crisis information, research, and literacy. Meanwhile, various curative programs include providing reports on climate crisis misinformation mechanisms and the formation of a collaborative task force to handle climate crisis misinformation. The programs themselves can be carried out by individual stakeholders or collaboratively.

Apart from carrying out comprehensive research, the research team also carried out various activities to support the research project to run smoothly and achieve the expected goals. Supporting activities for research projects include the implementation of online campaign activities on social media to voice the issue of climate crisis misinformation, community outreach activities targeting a wider audience in Indonesia, and also ending with dissemination of research results in the hybrid seminars for the public. The project was involved in producing policy briefs which are also based on research findings that have been carried out by researchers.

Table of Contents

• Background and Justification
• Project Implementation Narrative
• Project Indicators
• Project Review and Assessment
• Diversity and Inclusion
• Project Communication
• Project Sustainability
• Project Management
• Project Recommendations and Use of Findings
• Bibliography

Background and Justification

Unlike other misinformation topics, environmental misinformation is still under research in Indonesia.  It is unfortunate, considering that knowledge regarding this phenomenon will benefit the grassroots climate-change movement and the government’s effort to manage climate change. Especially with Indonesia’s pivotal role in global environmental sustainability as the home to the world’s third largest tropical rainforest and contains 10 per cent of global forest cover, as well as place for 12% of the world’s mammals. Through the project we propose, we will research and investigate the perception of internet users in Indonesia towards climate change, environmental issues, and misinformation. 

Recently, the concern regarding the circulation of misinformation related to environmental issues has been raised. Such problems were even addressed at the COP26 Summit held last year (Culliford, 2021). Unfortunately, the misinformation trend in Indonesia is also heading to a similar trajectory. It has been reported that 18% of Indonesians are climate change deniers, placing Indonesia as the country with the highest percentage of climate change deniers (Renaldi, 2019). Social media contents containing environmental misinformation are circulated within Indonesia’s digital realm. Social media personalities with massive followings are also spreading misinformation. Early this year, a YouTuber posted a video declaring that climate change is merely a global conspiracy. Although receiving backlash, the video gained significant traction and has been used by climate-change deniers to debunk climate change false information. 

Although most of its population are active internet users, Indonesia’s digital literacy index is considerably low (Harsono, 2022). Due to the lack of digital literacy skills, misinformation has remained rampant and caused havoc in the country. For instance, political misinformation has inflicted social divisions since the last two elections. The rapid spread of Covid-19 related misinformation has constantly undermined Indonesia’s efforts in handling the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, delaying addressing climate misinformation in Indonesia could magnify adverse consequences that could hurdle climate change mitigation.  

Established in 2016, the Center for Digital Society (CfDS) is built under the concern over contemporary issues of the socio-political condition of the world that might be accentuated by technological advancement. We aim to identify and optimize the role of information technology as a basis to provide a digital-based solution that can enhance the productivity of society on a daily basis. From this research project, we have tried to map the extent of misinformation related to climate change in Indonesia and identify which communities are most vulnerable to this misinformation. 

To support the dissemination of the research results we have conducted, we also conducted a series of dissemination events and online media campaigns to spread awareness about our project. Through our social media such as Instagram and Twitter/X, we carry out several online campaigns based on the results of our research. This online media campaign starts in October 2023 and lasts until January 2024. We have also held online training for trainers in November 2023 for the university students who will complete their Community Service Program, with the hope that they will be able to socialize the concerns about climate crisis misinformation in the areas where they will conduct their Community Service Program. Although we intended to conduct these training sessions offline, because the risk of COVID-19 was still prevalent at the time of this research, we had to conduct most outreach event hybrids. Therefore, the final research dissemination event that we held in January 2024 was conducted hybrid on campus with online means through YouTube live stream.

Project Implementation Narrative

The idea of the project came following recent friction between regional authority of central java and citizens of Wadas, a region in Central Java, over implementation of a national strategic project that has been allegedly damaging the environment near Wadas. As part of the friction, various narratives spread either related to the friction, including on the result of the project implementation, which has the potential to polarize the society. The friction, and it being deeply rooted in environmental issues, triggered CfDS to initiate research about environment-related misinformation. Further research showed that environment-related misinformation is among the least researched forms of misinformation in Indonesia, despite many of the narratives known to be part of industry propaganda. In combination of CfDS’s portfolio in carrying out research on misinformation, and ISIF Asia's theme about greening the internet, CfDS thus proposed to carry out research on climate misinformation. 

The main objectives of this project include:

1. Mapping the types of climate-change misinformation and measuring digital skills in managing the flow of information that are developing Indonesian society
2. Countering misinformation through improving digital literacy skills, providing policy recommendations, and engaging with multi-stakeholders and environmental grassroot movements
3. Increasing the awareness of the Indonesian people towards the phenomenon of climate-change misinformation

This project has targeted the general public and policy advocacy communities and is also expected to contribute to creating an inclusive Internet space in Indonesia which could lead to a better direction in solving climate change issues.

In the beginning of the project, we conducted research which aimed to unveil the factor contributing to society's beliefs toward climate crisis misinformation, which has implemented Desk Research, Quantitative Online Survey, and Sentiment Analysis to achieve the anticipated result. The dissemination of the research has been carried out by holding a hybrid event, inviting the public, students, vulnerable community, and local grassroot environmental activist groups. As our commitment to make an inclusive one-time event and extend the impacts, we also provided foreign language translator and sign language interpreter during the event which then successfully gathered 30 in-person participants, 300 attendees on Zoom, and approximately 1,284 viewers on YouTube.

In the parallel of the next stage of the project, we conducted an internet campaign by producing weekly social media contents as we aimed to raise public awareness and increase the project’s internet visibility regarding the research topic. To this day, CfDS has consistently produced 24 campaign contents that are available in our social media with a 6.9% content engagement rate on our Instagram. Furthermore, we also strive to broaden the impact of this project through community outreach programs. This entails a series of training events specifically designed for demographic groups that are particularly vulnerable to or more likely to be targeted by climate misinformation. Therefore, we have provided training sessions for students engaged in community service programs, which would help to extend and disseminate the materials addressing misinformation in the specific regions where the student’s programs are implemented.

Beginning of project

Activity	Description	#Months
Desk research	CfDS will conduct a systematic review and mapping of secondary data sources to gain initial issues mapping on the state of climate misinformation in Indonesia. In order to collect primary data, CfDS will deploy an online survey with a sample size of 2.401 respondents.	1
Sentiment analysis research	In parallel with the online survey, CfDS will conduct sentiment analysis research in Twitter to supplement the survey findings.	1
Quantitative online survey	In order to collect primary data, CfDS will deploy a national online survey with a sample size of 2.401 respondents from 34 provinces.	2

Middle of Project

Activity	Description	#Months
Producing Report of The Perceptions of Indonesia’s Internet Users towards Climate Misinformation	Data collected from the research will be thoroughly analyzed and then elaborately written in a concise report document which would be publicly accessible in English and Indonesian.	2
Research Dissemination	CfDS will disseminate the research through a public event. To amplify the project reach and push some changes, we plan to organize a round-table meeting with government, vulnerable community, and local grassroot environmental activist groups.	1

End of Project

Activity	Description	#Months
Community Outreach Programs	Organizing a series of training events dedicated for demographic groups who are most vulnerable to or more likely targeted by climate misinformation as identified through the online survey.	3

Throughout the Project

Activity	Description	#Months
Internet campaign	In order to raise public awareness and increase the project’s internet visibility CfDS will produce weekly social media contents with topics related to the project.	12

Project Indicators

Indicator	Status
Research Activities	Completed
Research Dissemination	Completed
Internet Campaign	Completed
Community Outreach Programs	Completed

Indicator: Research Activities Status: Completed Start and End Dates: March 1, 2023 to January 28, 2024 Description: Research activity is the first activity that is carried out in this project. Research activity aims to create an action research project to inquire upon the nuances of misinformation, especially in social media, and climate change/climate crisis denial. Addressing the differences of who climate deniers are can be an important tool to gauge the ways each differing identities respond to different rhetorical and methodical information dissemination methods. This activity carried out for approximately 12 full months to work on all stages of the research project. Baseline: Research conducted by YouGov-Cambridge found that Indonesia has the most climate deniers in the world. The reasons for Indonesia’s climate change denial are varied, from lack of education on environmental issues, lack of coverage from mass media, and importantly, much misinformation on the causes and effects of climate change. There is an ongoing debate regarding whether or not the constellation of climate activists or those who are aware on issues of climate change being middle-class (and above) and well-educated (higher education). Meanwhile those who are most impacted by climate change or the crisis imparted by it are the most marginalized portions of society. Activities: Research activity consists of first desk research which has conducted a systematic review and mapping of secondary data sources to gain initial issues mapping on the state of climate misinformation in Indonesia. The second one is a quantitative online survey, which is a national online survey with a sample size of 2.401 respondents from 34 provinces. In parallel with online surveys, content analysis research has been conducted on 123 climate misinformation content (climate crisis, global warming, and natural disasters). The data was obtained from four fact-checking website pages, namely: www.cekcepat.com, www.turnbackhoax.id, www.jalahoaks.jakarta .go.id, and www.saberhoaks.jabarprov.go.id. And producing reports of the perceptions of Indonesia’s internet users towards climate misinformation, from data collected. Outcomes: The research team has carried out national scale research activities regarding the dynamics of misinformation in the climate crisis issue in Indonesia. The research findings offer both academic and practical recommendations. Academically, this research needs to be followed up with research into mapping policies for preventing and handling environmental misinformation which not only includes climate crisis misinformation but also general climate, disasters and global warming misinformation. This research recommends preventing and handling the climate crisis misinformation involving various stakeholders such as government (from local to national), educational institutions (academics and practitioners, as well as students), various parties related communities (such as Environment, Fact Check, Digital Literacy, and other related communities), religious and community figures, social influencers, and internet users. The output that has been produced from this research is a research report and policy recommendation brief, which can be widely accessed by the public and stakeholders, national and international. This output has reached the CfDS audience ranging in age from youth to adults and has been distributed to the communities. These policy recommendations and research reports add to scientific studies which can be used as benchmarks to look at the issue of misinformation and also the use of digital media in monitoring nature crisis issues. Due to the lack of Indonesian society's attention to the issue of the climate crisis in Indonesia, similar studies and distributing messages to the public are crucial things to do either by the government as a policy maker or by the community and academics.

Indicator: Research Dissemination Status: Completed Start and End Dates: January 29, 2024 to January 31, 2024 Description: After carrying out research activities, dissemination activities to disseminate the research results were carried out through public events. To broaden the reach of the project and encourage some change, CfDS hosted a hybrid event inviting the public, students, vulnerable communities and local grassroots environmental activist groups. Dissemination activities are carried out in one event with the aim of disseminating research results and informing more parties. We also produce policy brief recommendations which we will later distribute to stakeholders, policy makers such as the government and the platform parties Baseline: With a lot of environmental misinformation in Indonesia, it is unfortunate considering that knowledge of this phenomenon would be beneficial for grassroots climate change movements and government efforts to manage climate change. It has been reported that 18% of Indonesians are climate-change deniers, placing Indonesia as the country with the highest percentage of climate change deniers. Coupled with the lack of digital literacy skills, misinformation has remained rampant and caused havoc in Indonesia. Activities: Dissemination activities are carried out by holding hybrid event inviting the public, students, vulnerable communities and local grassroots environmental activist groups to discuss the results or research and further efforts that can be made based on the results of the research. We invite the public to appear online to expand the reach of audiences who receive information from the results of research that has been conducted and also recommendations for things that the public can do in managing misinformation on digital media, to support the efforts to save the environment. Outcomes: The output obtained from holding dissemination activities is the distribution of research results to the widest possible audience. Information distribution is also aimed at the government, the environmental activist community, and grassroots groups working in this field. From the dissemination of research results, we encourage the public to become more aware of the current state of the environment, and be able to participate in disseminating information related to the environment more accurately. We provide several suggestions so that people can use digital media well to support the creation of a conducive digital space. This dissemination event was attended by 30 participants offline, 300 participants via Zoom online, and around 1.284 participants via YouTube streaming, which we also facilitated with English translators and sign language interpreters to make it more inclusive in conveying the event message.

Indicator: Internet Campaign Status: Completed Start and End Dates: October 20, 2023 to January 20, 2024 Description: Internet campaign activities are another activity carried out at a later stage which runs in parallel with other activities. The aim of this activity is to increase public awareness and increase the visibility of the project on the internet. The campaign will be carried out for several months with the production of several contents to optimize the dissemination of issue awareness and information to the public, through various CfDS social media channels, or involving other social media owned by partners and distributed to a wider target audience. We have produced 24 pieces of content that are available on CfDS social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube and X/Twitter. Baseline:The increasing trend of misinformation related environmental issues in society, including information circulating on the internet and social media, it raises new concerns. Social media contents containing environmental misinformations are circulated within Indonesia’s digital realm, more social media figures with massive following are also spreading misinformation. For example, last year a Youtuber posted a video claiming that climate change is just a global conspiracy. It's more than one variety of other similar content, which spreads misinformation and is used to debunk climate change false information. Activities: To carry out these internet campaign activities, CfDS has produced weekly social media content on topics related to the project, and disseminates it regularly via CfDS and partner social media channels. The content produced includes problems that occur, current conditions, impacts, and improvements that can be made. Content production takes the form of infographic design and short video design, which is managed in such a way that it adapts to the social media content format enjoyed by the audience. The content production carried out previously had gone through an internal discussion process at the research institute, and also received input from our external parties. CfDS pay attention to the level of audience engagement on social media towards the distributed content. Outcomes: The output that was successfully obtained from this internet campaign activity was in the form of informative content which can be a reference for appropriate information for the public in studying or recognizing problems that occur related to the environment in digital media, and the dynamics of misinformation that occurs among Indonesian audiences. The content that has been shared via social media has been enjoyed by the CfDS audience and the audience of CfDS partners who have helped in disseminating it. As more and more audiences are exposed to our social media content, we think that the dissemination of information about caring about protecting the digital space from climate crisis misinformation has begun to be accepted and realized by the public.

Indicator: Community Outreach Programs Status: Completed Start and End Dates: November 8, 2023 to January 15, 2024 Description: The community outreach program is an activity carried out several times in the timeline of this project. This activity organizes a series of training events dedicated to demographic groups that are most vulnerable or most likely to be targets of climate misinformation, involving youth who are concerned about keeping digital spaces safe and those who care about environmental issues. Baseline:There is a potential amount of misinformation and dissemination that can hurt and target marginalized communities. There is still a lot of misinformation related to environmental issues that is widespread in certain groups due to the lack of digital literacy. This activity is expected to provide concrete evidence to the Indonesian government about the condition of the Indonesian community on this issue today. Because this issue like climate change will reach a potential consensus understanding of climate change action rather than climate change denial. Activities: The community outreach program is carried out by holding a series of training events for trainers, targeting certain groups who are often targets of groups vulnerable to misinformation. We are targeting students who carry out community service programs, who can bring and spread material about misinformation to the area or region where the program is located in several provinces in Indonesia. Training activities were carried out several times online and information material was also distributed in the form of infographic posters at several points. Outcomes: The output obtained from this community outreach program is that information has been distributed from the research team with the help of a youth training group which is able to reach community groups more closely. Provide appropriate information and training regarding efforts to reduce misinformation, and hope that literate people can become influential people in disseminating correct information. By reducing the number of climate change deniers, regardless of spectrum, we can create an internet community that is safer with each other. This community outreach program through training of trainers was attended by 380 participants who will later share materials with local communities in their community projects in several regions in Indonesia, such as Java and Bali. The trainers are students who have an interest in digital issues and contribute to creating a safer and healthier digital space for all groups and can produce more positive information related to various matters, especially environmental protection practices.

Project Review and Assessment

This research was set out to identify climate deniers in Indonesia better. We approached this study through the field of misinformation studies. This project has developed our institutions in several ways. First, considering more recent studies about the methods of studying misinformation, we are required to be more precise in defining and measuring misinformation. This should go a long way in the attempt to approach misinformation, its impact, origins, and why people believe misleading information in a manner that is more sophisticated. Second, only some in our institution were attuned to the movements and science that studies the climate crisis. This project allows the team to learn from each other about the climate crisis and, of course, the impact misinformation plays in extending this clear and present danger. 

This project has helped further the field of misinformation studies and the climate crisis in Indonesia. Most importantly, we provide valuable insight into portions of the population who are disenfranchised from the climate consensus and tend to reject anthropogenic climate change findings. Some important findings that we acquired were:

1. 24.2% of respondents believe that the "climate crisis is an artificial construct created by global rulers," indicating a belief in global conspiracy theories.
2. One-third of respondents (21.5% agree and 11% strongly agree) perceive that the climate crisis is caused by an increasing number of people engaging in sinful behaviour and deviating from their religious commands.
3. Over 25% of respondents agree with the statement that scientists researching the climate crisis are controlled by the elite.

This finding is essential. In addition to data about climate denialism, research also indicates conspiratorial beliefs are prevalent in countries with rampant corruption. Therefore, addressing misinformation of all kinds needs to take note of the economic, social, political, and cultural conditions of their immediate vicinity. This is lacking in the discourse of “fake news” in Indonesia.

One of the most critical components in the literature of climate denialism is the presence of a Climate Change Counter-Movement (CCCM). This is significant because our literature review shows how people are not easily persuaded by false information. Therefore, unravelling the presence of CM is paramount. However, this endeavor requires a different method and approach, one we did not take in this project. Such a study requires a more intensive focus on the political economy of the climate crisis, the energy sector, the extractive industry, and the information manipulation industry. Further studies should examine this in great detail, especially presenting different case studies to enrich our theories and concepts about climate denialism and ways to sober the information disorder.

Diversity and Inclusion

Throughout the project implementation, diversity and inclusion were highly prioritized. Firstly, the research team is led by a woman, and approximately 70% of the team consists of women, showcasing a commitment to gender diversity. Additionally, all aspects of our communication strategy were designed to be inclusive towards people with disabilities and accessible to the general public, regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic background.

To ensure diversity and inclusion, several measures were implemented:

1. Utilizing Kobotoolbox for distributing questionnaires: Kobotoolbox, an open-source online survey platform developed for humanitarian data collection, was chosen due to its advantages over mainstream survey platforms. Its simple and intuitive user interface ensures ease of use and access, regardless of internet connection quality or digital device capabilities. This decision ensures that our questionnaire is easily accessible to all individuals.
2.  Focusing on the intersection of climate misinformation and marginalized communities: The research specifically addressed the impact of climate misinformation on marginalized communities, including people with disabilities, diverse gender identities, and sexual orientations. This focus emphasizes the importance of understanding and addressing the unique challenges faced by these groups.
3. Hiring a sign language interpreter for public communication: To ensure that our research findings and dissemination efforts are accessible to everyone, we employed a sign language interpreter. This step helps to eliminate barriers for individuals with hearing impairments, ensuring that they can fully engage with our project's outcomes.

Collectively, these measures demonstrate a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion within the project team and the broader community. By prioritizing accessibility and addressing the needs of marginalized groups, the project aims to promote equity and empower all individuals to participate fully.

Project Communication

Our research has a 2-stage communication strategy where we have carried out all stages and completed them. Starting from the initial stages of preparing a literature review to support initial research data. Our research involves a community survey, so we invite our audience to participate. Our target audience for this survey is active social media users in Indonesia. We used a pre-research communication strategy by inviting the public to participate in the survey via CfDS social media posts. The survey was conducted online so that our target audience experienced no geographical barriers.

Our next step was to carry out a series of post-research communication strategies. We started with social campaigns and a series of training events. The research we conducted began with our awareness of the large influence of social media in disseminating information in society. Therefore, we also held a social campaign via social media to share the results of our research in the form of weekly social media content and an online booklet. We hope our research results can reach and benefit as many people as possible.

In addition to holding social campaigns, we have also held training events for the general public and students. In the training and dissemination event, we hope to collaborate with stakeholders and organizations engaged in solving environmental problems. The event's goal is to provide understanding to the public so that they are not exposed to the climate misinformation that is widely circulating.

In every communication strategy implementation, we are very open to input from the audience. We also do our best to address diversity and consider the needs of marginalized communities. Therefore, all implementation of our communication strategy is open to the general public, regardless of gender and background. For example, the event is accessible online with captioning features and sign language interpreters. We will also create a hybrid event to overcome geographical constraints so that the wider community can participate.

Through the mass media, we distributed press releases informing the results of this research findings, and invited the public to start becoming more concerned about the issue of the climate crisis, by not contributing to misinformation on digital media Some of media coverage is shown in the table below.

Media Coverage CfDS on January Event: Dissemination Event Research Project Misinformation Climate Change in Indonesia '2024
No	Judul Berita/Coverage	Tipe Kegiatan CfDS yang Diliput (PressCon/Training/Kolaborasi Event/etc.)	Nama Media	Nama Jurnalis	Link Berita
1	Riset CfDS UGM: Misinformasi Perparah Persepsi Masyarakat Terhadap Krisis Iklim	Digitalk #61	Humas UGM	Satria Ardhi	https://ugm.ac.id/id/berita/riset-cfds-ugm-misinformasi-perparah-persepsi-masyarakat-terhadap-krisis-iklim/
2	Riset CfDS UGM: 24,2% Orang Percaya Krisis Iklim Rekayasa Buatan Elit Global	Digitalk #61	Pandangan Jogja	Pandangan Jogja	https://kumparan.com/pandangan-jogja/riset-cfds-ugm-24-2-orang-percaya-krisis-iklim-rekayasa-buatan-elit-global-224H1XmMNpI/full
3	CfDS UGM tekankan sinergi tangkal misinformasi krisis iklim	Digitalk #61	Antara	Redaksi	https://www.antaranews.com/berita/3938943/cfds-ugm-tekankan-sinergi-tangkal-misinformasi-krisis-iklim
4	Riset UGM: Banyak Orang Percaya Teori Konspirasi Global dalam Isu Krisis Iklim	Digitalk #61	Solo Pos Jogja	Lugas Subarkah	https://jogja.solopos.com/riset-ugm-banyak-orang-percaya-teori-konspirasi-global-dalam-isu-krisis-iklim-1852936
5	Hasil Penelitian CfDS: Misinformasi Krisis Iklim Tinggi	Digitalk #61	IDN Times Jogja	Herlambang Jati Kusumo	https://jogja.idntimes.com/news/indonesia/herlambang-jati-kusumo/hasil-penelitian-cfds-misinformasi-krisis-iklim-tinggi
6	Masih Banyak Orang Percaya Krisis Iklim Adalah Rekayasa	Digitalk #61	Harian Jogja	Lugas Subarkah	https://jogjapolitan.harianjogja.com/read/2024/01/30/512/1163256/masih-banyak-orang-percaya-krisis-iklim-adalah-rekayasa
7	Banyak Informasi Keliru, Masyarakat Kurang Peduli Tangani Krisis Iklim	Digitalk #61	Lima Pagi	Agus Rahardjo	https://www.limapagi.id/19269/banyak-informasi-keliru-masyarakat-kurang-peduli-tangani-krisis-iklim/
8	CfDS Ungkap Dinamika Misinformasi Isu Krisis Iklim di Indonesia Serta Penanganannya	Digitalk #61	MileniaNews	Dinar Ismunandar	https://milenianews.com/news/cfds-ungkap-dinamika-misinformasi-isu-krisis-iklim-di-indonesia-serta-penanganannya/

Project Sustainability

All the materials published are readily available in CfDS’ websites and social media platforms to be freely utilized by the public (please access through our website link). This includes, but is not limited to: research reports, social media contents and materials (Instagram), and research dissemination events (YouTube). The research dissemination was conducted in hybrid-mode, where 30 participants attended offline and about 300 participants joined the event through Zoom and 1,284 via YouTube live streaming.

The community outreach events (training for trainers) were also joined by 380 participants/ university students who then also shared the materials with local communities across the country.

All contents are free and openly accessible for the public. A policy brief is also presented, aiming for raising awareness and providing recommendations about the issues to the key stakeholders (government, social media platforms, media and journalists). We are also planning to further write scholarly articles based on the research conducted to contribute to the academic and scientific community focusing on the issue of climate misinformation, digital literacy, and science communication.

Project Management

The whole process in this project involves a team from CfDS, research targets (about 2,401 respondents), partners (youth communities, religious based communities, environmental groups, etc.), and stakeholders (local/central government). During the project implementation, we highly encourage diversity. All implementations of our communication strategy promote inclusiveness towards people with disabilities and are open to be accessed by the general public, regardless of their gender and background. 

Misinformation and disinformation as a research topic have been one of our center’s focus of study for years in relation to our commitment in strengthening the nation’s digital literacy. Nevertheless, by specifically focusing on the issue of climate misinformation and climate crisis in this project, it has broadened our Centre’s research focus and also knowledge production, especially given that climate crisis and science communication topics are very salient in recent times.

On a technical note, there was a delay on the project because as a research centre based in a public university in Indonesia, we have to follow the university’s administrative procedures, including about the payment and billing. In the initial stage of the project, there was an issue that the university’s office mishandled the billing ID which resulted in the delay of the payment and this has also affected our project timeline. In this regard, we didn’t have much authority in bypassing the bureaucracy. Nevertheless, learning from this experience, we have been closely in contact with the university finance department.

Project Recommendations and Use of Findings

Our project has contributed to the fields of misinformation studies and understanding the climate crisis and its denial in Indonesia. We want to highlight that the segments of the population that are disconnected from the climate consensus need to be taken seriously. As we have mentioned in our policy recommendation, there needs to be a concerted, collaborative effort to tackle information disorder about the climate crisis. Furthermore, they are not easily persuaded, and the Internet is not ripe with misinformation. Therefore, studies on misinformation should consider the economic, political, social, and cultural structures of their subjects. 

One significant aspect that is underexplored but important in the literature on climate denialism is the existence of a climate change counter-movement (CCCM). Exploring this issue was beyond the scope of our research. Nonetheless, it is recommended that future research pay attention to CCCM. Research of this kind requires a distinct methodological and conceptual approach. Such an investigation necessitates a deep dive into the political economy of the climate crisis, the energy sector, the extractive industry, and the mechanisms of information manipulation. 

Bibliography

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Krippendorff, K. (2022). The Reliability of Generating Data (1st ed.). Chapman and Hall/CRC. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003112020. 

Nurhayati-Wolff, H. (2023, December 12). Indonesia: number of internet users 2028. Statista. Retrieved February 13, 2024, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/254456/number-of-internet-users-in-indonesia/.

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