Winning the Climate Narrative: Disinformation, Trust, & the Politics of Resilience
18. June 13:30 - 15:15
Room 1
The climate crisis is real, so are the consequences. Communities worldwide are working to increase climate resilience. Those efforts are undermined by a widening gap between scientific knowledge and public understanding, compounded by declining trust in media and the growing spread of disinformation. Media coverage of climate risks is often reactive, crisis-driven, and episodic, focusing on extreme events while neglecting the crucial phases of preparedness and recovery – as well as often reporting on climate in one silo, while narrating economy, politics and even weather events without making that connection. This results in an information ecosystem that is fragmented, sensationalist, and often disconnected from the lived realities of vulnerable communities.
Resilience itself poses a communication challenge, as it is largely preventive and invisible – defined by avoided harm rather than visible outcomes – making it harder to sustain public and political attention.
This session brings together practitioners from local politics, administration, and media to work on three key challenges: improving the quality and integrity of climate information, strengthening institutional and political conditions for credible communication, and rebuilding public trust. It emphasises the need for continuous, people-centred communication across all phases of climate events, integrating expert knowledge with local experience.
Speakers
Mayor, City of Alzira
Alfons Domínguez, Mayor, City of Alzira
Alfons Domínguez Gento is the Mayor-President of Alzira, in the Valencia Region, Spain. He is an environmental scientist and agricultural technical engineer, with a long professional background in ecological agriculture, agroecology, biodiversity and climate transition. Before becoming Mayor, he worked for the Generalitat Valenciana in the field of organic production and innovation, where he coordinated the First Valencian Plan for Organic Production and contributed to the development of the Second Valencian Plan for Agroecological Transition. His career combines public administration, applied research, training and environmental policy, with extensive experience in sustainable agriculture, climate adaptation and local environmental governance. As Mayor of Alzira, he promotes local policies focused on climate resilience, ecological transition and effective public communication.
Project Manager, Municipality of Almada
Diana Henriques, Project Manager, Municipality of Almada
Environmental Engineer (NOVA FCT) with a Master’s in Human Ecology and Contemporary Social Issues (NOVA FCSH), she has developed her career at the intersection of sustainability, innovation, and public policy. She has collaborated with organisations such as YDreams, FCT-UNL’s Environmental Systems Analysis Group, the Portuguese Geographic Institute, international partners in the Netherlands, and the environmental NGO GEOTA.
At Lisboa E-Nova, the Energy and Environment Agency of Lisbon, she managed and coordinated projects in Sustainable Development Education, Biodiversity, Circular Economy, and EU-funded programmes, including Interreg Sudoe Projects - CEMOWAS2 and H2020 - HUB-IN as WP leader.
Since 2025, she has been working as Project Manager at Almada Municipality, contributing to the CCOLIFEALMADA project, focused on adaptation to climate change in urban environments.
Head of Communications, REVOLVE Media
Patricia Carbonell, Head of Communications, REVOLVE Media
Patricia is an experienced communicator and creative thinker with a solid background in multimedia storytelling, media relations, and event organisation. She is currently Head of Communications at REVOLVE and leads strategic communication for EU-funded Research and Innovation projects and meaningful partnerships. She holds a Master’s degree in Media, Communications, and Critical Practice from the London College of Communication (2013), with a thesis on communicating climate change in the media. Before joining REVOLVE in 2017, she worked as a content producer at ditto.tv and as communications manager promoting sustainability in the water & energy sectors in London.
Editor-in-Chief, Sul Informação
Hugo Rodrigues, Editor-in-Chief, Sul InformaÇÃo
Formed in journalism in CENJOR - Centro Protocolar de Formação em Jornalismo, he started his career in the regional newspaper Barlavento, in the Algarve, after an internship at Jornal Público, in Lisbon. In 2011 he co-founded, along with his fellow journalists Elisabete Rodrigues and Nuno Costa, the online newspaper Sul Informação, where he still works as Editor in Chief.
Journalist, El Salto País Valencià
Lluna Bartual, Journalist, El Salto PaÍs ValenciÀ
Lluna Bartual is an audiovisual journalist at elDiario.es and a contributor to El Salto País Valencià, where she covers social issues and human rights. Her work is grounded in ethical journalism, with a strong focus on telling the stories of communities and grassroots collectives. Committed to fostering responsible and high-quality communication, she was selected as a fellow of the Climate Frontline programme, a space where journalists exchange perspectives, share knowledge, and develop collaborative approaches to the ethical coverage of local environmental crises.
Trainee jounalist, elDiario.es
Danylo Titenko, Trainee jounalist, elDiario.es
Originally from Ukraine and based in Spain for the past decade, he is a fifth-year student of Sociology and Political Science at the University of Valencia. He has completed an internship and currently collaborates with the news outlet elDiario.es, having published numerous articles across diverse topics such as the environment, politics, culture, history, health, and transport.
His journalistic work stands out for its focus on data journalism, including notable reports analyzing the declared assets of Valencian politicians. He has recently been admitted to the Complutense University of Madrid to pursue a Master's degree in Social Sciences Research Methodology: Innovations and Applications. His primary areas of interest and analysis include international relations and geopolitics.
Região de Leiria Newspaper
Carlos Almeida, Região de Leiria Newspaper
Moderators
Journalism Programme Manager, Clean Energy Wire
Clemens Schöll, Journalism Programme Manager, Clean Energy Wire
Clemens A. Schöll is Journalism Programme Manager at Clean Energy Wire, Europe's leading platform for collaborative and solution-oriented climate and energy journalism, based in Berlin. He organises study trips, conferences and different types of on and offline trainings. While organising an exchange programme for journalists from Central and Eastern Europe, he realised that it was even more fulfilling to work with journalists than as a journalist. He found his destiny after stays with a number of media outlets, including dpa, Stiftung Warentest and Thüringer Allgemeine.
Even though Clemens is working on dis- and misinformation for many years, the topic got more importance and attention during in 2017 and 2018, when he was giving workshops to journalists and journalism students all across Ukraine.