Daily Times

Researchers call them the “American blondes” — bright-eyed environmentalists tweeting passionately in support of the UAE and its handling of the forthcoming COP28 climate summit. The only problem? They are not real. Ben, Brianna, Emma, Caitlin and Chloe exude a refreshing optimism about the role of the Gulf state and its COP28 chief, oil executive Sultan Al Jaber, in promoting climate action. Their sultry profile shots look like drawings from a fantasy novel — concocted using an AI-powered picture generator. Their names, locations and environmental credentials do not appear together elsewhere online.

Analysts consulted by AFP identified these and dozens of other Twitter accounts as being involved in coordinated activity, labelling the tactic as a form of “astroturfing” — a false grassroots campaign to influence public opinion. The “blonde” accounts, for example, were created within hours of each other in August 2022, according to a digital analysis by Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD), a coalition of non-government groups. It said the accounts posted clusters of similar messages nearly simultaneously, including retweets of posts from the United Arab Emirates embassy in Washington.

A COP28 spokesperson told AFP in an email that the accounts were “generated by outside actors unknown and unconnected to COP28 and are designed to discredit COP28 and the climate process.” They said COP28 had reported activity by the suspect accounts to Twitter and had asked the platform to take “immediate action to stop these activities”. Many of the accounts appeared to have been suspended on Twitter after being flagged by researchers. In May, US and EU lawmakers called for Jaber to step down, saying his position as head of the state-owned oil company ADNOC means a conflict of interest for someone chairing discussions about ending planet-warming carbon emissions. Jaber has the support of COP parties including US climate envoy John Kerry. He has called for rapid development of renewable energy and acknowledged last week that “the phase-down of fossil fuels is inevitable.” The Twitter campaign sought to portray Jaber as committed and capable of fixing the climate crisis.

When Romain Ioualalen, a campaigner from Oil Change International, tweeted about the risk that COP28 hosted by the Emirates “slows down the transition away from fossil fuels”, he received several responses from some of the accounts identified as fakes by researchers. Dubai-based “lawyer” Caitlin hailed Jaber’s leadership at COP28 as a “game-changer” while “ecologist” Emma praised his “passion for climate action”. When the Centre for Climate Reporting (CCR) said last month that Jaber’s team was “greenwashing” Wikipedia by editing pages to play down his role as the head of ADNOC, it drew a similar response from 15 pro-UAE accounts. They all claimed to be young non-Emiratis with an interest in climate change and human rights and many voiced support for Jaber, CCR’s director Lawrence Carter told AFP.