Climate disinformation on Google Search

CLIMATE DISINFORMATION ON GOOGLE SEARCH SSLIS, Swedish School of Library and Information Science University of Borås Åsa Rolfsdotter Söderberg - Agnes Tibbelin The following research questions are addressed: 1. Does Google Search contribute to making greenwashing visible, and if so, how? 2. How can the results be understood against the background of Google's principle of trustworthiness? This study aims to improve the understanding of how Google Search contributes to greenwashing as a form of climate disinformation. Ahmed, I. (2021). Greenwashing on Google: How Google profits from cleaning Big Oil´s reputation. CCDH - Center for Countering Digital Hate. https://counterhate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Greenwashing-on-Google_Final-Report.pdf Bąkowicz, K. (2024). Climate disinformation on the internet and social media. Analysis of the phenomenon. Media, Biznes, Kultura (17): 7-18. doi: 10.4467/25442554.MBK.24.014.20888 CAAD (n.d). Misinformation and disinformation are major threats to climate action. https://caad.info/what-is-misinformation-disinformation/#universal-definition [2025-03-26 Copernicus. (2025). Copernicus Global Climate Report 2024 confirms last year as the warmest on record, first ever above 1.5°C annual average temperature. https://www.copernicus.eu/en/news/news/copernicus-global-climate-report-2024-confirms-last-year-warmest-record-first-ever-above [2024-04-21]] Ekberg, K., Forchtner, B., Hultman, M., & Jylhä, K.M. (2023). Climate Obstruction: How Denial, Delay and Inaction are Heating the Planet. Routledge. Europaparlamentet. (2024). Stoppa greenwashing: så reglerar EU miljöpåståenden. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/sv/article/20240111STO16722/stoppa-greenwashing-sa-reglerar-eu-miljopastaenden [2025-03-26] Friedman, R. S. and D. S. Campbell. (2023). An Experimental Study of the Impact of Greenwashing on Attitudes toward Fossil Fuel Corporations' Sustainability Initiatives. Environmental Communication-a Journal of Nature and Culture 17(5): 486-501. doi: 10.1080/17524032.2023.2215959 Goffman, E. (1974). Frame Analysis. An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Northeastern University Press. Google. (2025). Google search quality evaluator. https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/guidelines.raterhub.com/en//searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf Preemwashing. (u.åb.). Vad är greenwashing? https://preemwashing.se/vad-kan-du-gora/?_gl=1*1csbni7*_gcl_au*MTk3NjE3OTg4NC4xNzQwNDc1NTg4 [2025-04-26] IPCC. (2023). Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report.Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, H. Lee and J. Romero (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, pp. 1-34, doi: 10.59327/IPCC/AR6-9789291691647.001. Lewandowski, D., & Schultheiß, S. (2022). Public awareness and attitudes towards search engine optimization. Behaviour & Information Technology, 42(8), 1025–1044. doi:10.1080/0144929X.2022.2056507 Naderer, B., Schmuck, D. & Matthes, J. (2017). 2.3 Greenwashing: Disinformation through Green Advertising. In G. Siegert, M. Rimscha & S. Grubenmann (Ed.), Commercial Communication in the Digital Age: Information or Disinformation? (pp. 105-120). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Saur. doi: 10.1515/9783110416794-007 Oehlenschlager, M. (2022). Google, Greenwashing and Information Dystopia. https://dataethics.eu/google-greenwashing-and-information-dystopia/ [2025-03-28] Preemwashing. (n.d.). Vad är greenwashing? https://preemwashing.se/vad-kan-du-gora/?_gl=1*1csbni7*_gcl_au*MTk3NjE3OTg4NC4xNzQwNDc1NTg4 [2025-04-26] RCO. (2024). Rhodium climate outlook 2024 probabilistic global emissions and energy projections. https://climateoutlook.rhg.com/reports/rhodium-climate-outlook-2024-probabilistic-global-emissions-and-energy-projections [2025-04-21] Terrachoice. (2010). The sins of greenwashing. Home and family edition 2010. https://www.twosides.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Terrachoice_The_Sins_of_Greenwashing_-_Home_and_Family_Edition_2010.pdf Vilhelmsson, A. (2024). Inledning - ett klimat i förändring. I Vilhelmsson (red) Klimatmedicin: om klimatförändringar, extremväder och hälsa. Studentlitteratur. The study is based on an Algorithm audit: Structured review of Google Search ranking algorithms. Five companies publicly accused of greenwashing; Arla, Preem, H&M, Shell and Shein were used in the study. The companies represent three different sectors that account for a large share of global emissions (RCO, 2024); the food industry, the fossil fuel industry and the textile industry. The companies are used as an indicator of greenwashing on Google Search. The data collection was performed by the search engine scraper, Result Assessment Tool (RAT). The data contained; the 20 first results of each query, creation date and time, url, main website, position in the SERP, title and description of the search results. In four of the seven queries, possible greenwashing and marketing content was the most common result in the SERP. Critical reviews and scientific information were generally missing on the first result page. The year 2024 had the highest temperatures ever recorded (Copernicus, 2025). The accelerating climate crisis demands urgent action, but disinformation continues to spread, delaying and obstructing necessary measures (IPCC, 2023; Bakowicz, 2024). Google searches for "net zero" or "greenhouse gas" emissions often yield results funded by fossil fuel companies (Oehlenschlager, 2022). Companies have successfully delayed climate action by promoting themselves as eco-friendly (Ahmed, 2021). This is a type of climate disinformation known as greenwashing. Users trust Google Search to provide reliable and accurate information (Lewandowski & Schultheiß, 2022), which the company claims to do through the principle of trustworthiness, EEAT and YMYL (Google, 2025). What responsibility does Google Search have as a search engine and gatekeeper of information to provide accurate and trustworthy information about the climate crisis, its causes and possible solutions? Climate Disinformation: false or misleading information about the climate crisis, its origins and possible solutions (CAAD, n.d.). Greenwashing: disinformation in which companies make exaggerated or false claims to appear more environmentally sustainable when their activities contribute to climate change and other environmental harm (European Parliament, 2024; Ekberg et al., 2023; Naderer, Schmuck & Matthes, 2017). EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness): A Google principle used to assess website quality and credibility to rank search results (Google, 2025). YMYL (Your Money or Your Life): websites with health, economic, or social implications. Pages classified as YMYL may cause harm if not trustworthy, requiring careful review by human quality evaluators. Trustworthiness is evaluated using Google's EEAT principles. Web pages covered by YMYL that do not meet Google's principles of trustworthiness receive a lower ranking from quality evaluators (Google, 2025). METHODS PURPOSE RESULT CONCLUSION DISCUSSION DEFINITIONS GREENWASHING CRITERIA Coding scheme Greenwashing (G) Critical review (C) Information (I) Marketing (M) News media (N) Science (S) Search queries "climate neutral" "net zero emissions" "Arla sustainability" "H&M sustainability" "Shell sustainability" "Shein sustainability" "Preem sustainability" In five of the seven queries the first two to three results of the SERP were of possible greenwashing. This is problematic as studies show that the majority of users only read the first three results of the SERP (Lewandowski, 2023). Research shows that it takes about thirty seconds for a people to be influenced by greenwashing (Friedman & Campbell, 2023). When greenwashing is positioned in the first results of the SERP, a frame is created of the companies and their products as sustainable. 1.Google Search contribute to the visibility of greenwashing by positioning greenwashing content high in the result page. This may be due to la ack of moderation and that commercial interests are premiered. 2. The climate crisis can be framed as a public health issue (Vilhelmsson, 2024). Websites with climate claims that affect people's economy or health therefore ought to be moderated as YMYL and according to the principles of EEAT. Seven criteria were used to detect greenwashing in the data (Preemwashing, n.d;Terrachoice, 2010). 1. selective information (G1) 2. lack of evidence (G2) 3. vagueness (G3) 4. irrelevance (G4) 5. the best of two negative things (G5) 6. lies, false advertisement (G6) 7. unreasonable future promises (G7) Above is an overview of the result. The chart shows each queries with the 20 first results and the positions in the SERP. The search results have been coded according to the above coding scheme. A content analysis with a coding scheme was used to analyze the individual search results. Frame theory was used to analyze the individual search results and the search engine result page (SERP) as a whole to understand which perspectives of the query that are presented and what is missing in the SERP. REFERENCE