How Mongabay India is strengthening climate journalism in the age of misinformation

17 Mar 2026

At a time when misinformation can shape public understanding of climate change and influence policy debates, strengthening verification practices has become a critical part of environmental journalism.

At Mongabay India, senior production editor Aditi Tandon works at the center of this challenge. She brings fact-checking and verification expertise to reporting on complex environmental issues to ensure claims are scrutinized and evidence clearly explained. “Verification helps reporters move beyond simply repeating viewpoints and toward explaining what evidence actually shows,” she says.

As part of this work, Tandon has examined how misinformation spreads in environmental conversations, from viral pandemic-era claims about animals that risked harming wildlife to misleading narratives around the COP26 climate summit that fueled polarization around climate action.

These practices are becoming increasingly central as climate reporting expands into mainstream news coverage. At the same time, the stakes remain high. “The cost of climate misinformation is that it can delay policy decisions and erode trust in science,” Tandon says. 

Mongabay India Senior Production Editor Aditi Tandon presenting about climate reporting verification and fact-checking best practices. Image courtesy Aditi Tandon.
Mongabay India Senior Production Editor Aditi Tandon presenting about climate reporting verification and fact-checking best practices. Image courtesy Aditi Tandon.

In this conversation with Mongabay, Tandon discusses how climate verification works in practice, why misinformation is evolving and how strengthening reporting practices can help journalism respond to one of the defining information challenges of our time.

An interview with Aditi Tandon

Mongabay: You began working on climate misinformation before it was a major journalism beat in India. What made you realize this was going to be such a defining information challenge?

Aditi Tandon: In 2018, I became a certified fact-checking trainer. Political and communal misinformation dominated at the time. The COVID-19 pandemic then triggered a surge in health misinformation, showing how quickly sudden waves can emerge. It was a clear signal that we needed to be prepared.

In the following years, my reporting tracked misinformation around animals during the pandemic, showing how harmless claims can spiral into real-world harms. I also reported on the rise of climate misinformation around COP26, revealing how climate change was increasingly being used as a tool for polarisation.

Mongabay: How do you apply climate verification in everyday reporting?

Aditi Tandon: Factchecking is an extension of good journalism and editing. With misinformation becoming more sophisticated, the tools help, of course, but the fundamentals of journalism remain – asking questions, checking sources, and ensuring clarity and accuracy. 

Similarly, climate verification is about using these fundamentals to report accurately on climate change. Day-to-day it means asking: Where does this claim come from? What does the underlying science actually say? Who benefits from a particular narrative? 

Verification helps reporters move beyond simply repeating viewpoints and toward explaining what evidence actually shows.

Mongabay: You’ve trained many journalists to identify and counter climate misinformation. What ripple effects have you seen from that work in newsrooms or public discourse?

Aditi Tandon: I’ve been fortunate that during the years I’ve trained journalists to counter climate misinformation, there have also been parallel efforts across the field to strengthen climate and science journalism.

What I’ve seen is a shift toward more nuanced climate reporting – using verification techniques, data, visuals and more. Climate change is increasingly part of mainstream newsrooms and intersects with every beat. Journalists and scientists are working more closely to bring credible research and scientific consensus to the forefront. Outright climate denial is pushed to the margins.

Journalists are asking questions, rather than just reproducing what they are told, until they reach clarity.

Mongabay: Climate misinformation today is more widespread and politically charged. How has your approach evolved to keep pace with it?

Aditi Tandon: Earlier, much of the misinformation involved straightforward factual errors or misinterpretations of science. Today, it is often more sophisticated, embedded in narratives about economics, politics or corporate success. Because of that, the approach to verification must also expand beyond the binaries of true and false.

I focus on understanding the broader context in which misinformation travels: how it spreads, why certain messages resonate with people, and how low climate literacy – worsened by jargon – can open up room for it to thrive. Addressing misinformation requires empathy as much as expertise. People are navigating real concerns about livelihoods, energy access and economic change, and those realities shape how climate information is received.

Mongabay: What are the real-world costs of climate misinformation, and how does combating it strengthen the role of journalism?

Aditi Tandon: The cost of climate misinformation is that it can delay policy decisions and erode trust in science. But on a more immediate level, it can create confusion during moments when people need clarity about the risks to respond to a rapidly changing climate. When misinformation shapes public understanding, it can slow the momentum needed for meaningful action.

We are going beyond correcting false claims. We are strengthening the role of journalism to shed light on complex issues and help people make sense of something that seems abstract but has very tangible impacts. In that sense, tackling misinformation reinforces journalism’s core purpose: to provide reliable knowledge that enables informed decisions. 

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Banner image: A leopard in Rajiv Gandhi Tiger Reserve in India. Image by Srikaanth Sekar via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).