Climate and Political Fact-Checking Research & Development Collaboration
CLIMATE+TECH is an AI Think-Tank bridging the gap between research and local stakeholders in climate change adaptation and democratic discourse, democratizing knowledge using AI technology. It stays up-to-date with research and has a focus on Climate and Political Claims.
Our Mission
CLIMATE+TECH is democratizing knowledge through AI technology, creating tools that:
- Verify Climate Claims: Check statements about climate change against trustworthy sources like IPCC reports
- Verify Political Claims: Fact-check political statements and policy claims against authoritative sources and evidence
- Detect Greenwashing: Identify and verify green claims and potential misleading greenwashing
- Combat Disinformation: Provide journalistic fact checks for both climate and political disinformation
Core Research Team
Interdisciplinary expertise from academia and industry
UZH Professor, Academic Advisory Lead - Academic Research
BI Norwegian Business School, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
C+T Managing Partner, Architecture
C+T Researcher, AI Engineers - AI Engineering
C+T Advisor, AI Expert - AI Advisory
XplAINLP Group Lead TU Berlin
C+T Researcher
Academic Advisor - Domain Expert
Research Team & Collaborators
Our interdisciplinary team brings together expertise from academia and industry.
The Open Source Toolkit
Our Open Source Multi-Purpose toolkit serves researchers, developers, and the broader community:
🔬 For Researchers
- Benchmarking platform for new fact-checking algorithms
- Standardized datasets for evaluation and comparison
- Collaborative research environment with academic institutions
🛠️ For Developers
- Development tools for building fact-checking applications
- Configurable architecture for different use cases
- Integration capabilities with existing systems
🌍 For the Community
- Open source approach ensuring transparency and accessibility
- Community-driven development with stakeholder input
- Real-world applications serving diverse needs
Use Cases & Applications
| Use Case | Description | Target Users | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Climate Claims Verification | Automated verification of climate-related statements against authoritative sources like IPCC reports, ensuring accuracy in climate communications. | Researchers, Scientists, Policy Makers | IPCC integration, Source validation, Accuracy scoring |
| Greenwashing Detection | Advanced algorithms to identify and analyze potentially misleading environmental claims, helping combat corporate greenwashing. | Investors, Consumers, NGOs | Corporate claim analysis, Misleading pattern detection, Transparency scoring |
| Political Claims Verification | Automated verification of political statements, policy claims, and electoral information against authoritative sources and fact-checking databases. | Journalists, Media Organizations, Citizens, Policy Analysts | Real-time fact checking, Political statement analysis, Policy verification, Bias detection |
| Political Disinformation | Providing journalistic fact checks for political disinformation and misinformation campaigns. | Journalists, Media Organizations, Citizens | Real-time fact checking, Disinformation pattern detection, Source credibility analysis |
| Media Analysis | Tools for journalists and media organizations to fact-check climate-related content efficiently and accurately. | News Organizations, Content Creators, Publishers | Bulk content analysis, Editorial workflows, Citation verification |
Technical Approach
Our toolkit implements the Advocate Mediator Pattern against climate and political fact-checking datasets, using what we call the “Climinator pattern” for robust fact verification across multiple domains. The architecture is:
- Configurable and modular for different applications
- Scalable for various deployment scenarios
- Explainable to ensure transparency in fact-checking decisions
- Community-extensible for continuous improvement
Research Collaboration
We collaborate with leading academic institutions including:
- University of Zurich (UZH) - Led by Professor Markus Leippold
- ETH Zurich - Technical research partnerships
- Industry partners - Real-world implementation and testing
Next Steps & Development Roadmap
Our ongoing development focuses on:
External Knowledge Integration
Like Wikipedia knowledge bases and other authoritative sources to expand our verification capabilities.
Large Fine-tuned Dataset Development
Building comprehensive benchmarking datasets for standardized evaluation of fact-checking systems.
Knowledge Graph Integration
Connecting current research and developing sophisticated knowledge representation systems.
Real World Applications
Deploying expert fact checkers in production environments for practical impact.
Community & Funding
Securing funding for core contributors and building a sustainable open source community.
Community Contributions
We’re looking for diverse contributions:
- Use cases and feedback from practitioners
- Datasets for training and evaluation
- Technical contributions to the open source codebase
- Research collaboration with academic institutions
- Stakeholder engagement for real-world validation
Get Involved
Whether you’re a researcher, developer, journalist, climate advocate, or political analyst, there’s a place for you in our community. Help us build the future of climate and political fact-checking!
Contact Information:
- GitHub: climateandtech/factchecker
- Slack: climateandtech.slack.com
- Email: contact@climateandtech.com
Ready to contribute? Contact us and let us know how you’d like to help democratize climate and political knowledge through AI.
02/2024: Literature Review
Partnerships and first configurable architecture
03/2024: Partnership with UZH / ETH
Collaboration with Markus Leippold and other researchers
06/2024: Implementation of Advocate Mediator Pattern
Against climate feedback dataset (Climinator pattern)
11/2024: Launch and Growing Community
Community readiness with use cases for media analysis and community notes
02/2025: Open Source - Architecture Improvement
More data sources, datasets, and web frontend development
Q2 2025: External Knowledge Integration
Wikipedia knowledge bases and authoritative sources integration
Q3 2025: Large Fine-tuned Dataset Development
Comprehensive benchmarking datasets for standardized evaluation
Q4 2025: Knowledge Graph Integration
Connecting current research and developing sophisticated knowledge representation
2026: Real World Applications
Deploying expert fact checkers in production environments
Ongoing: Community & Funding
Securing funding for core contributors and building sustainable open source community
Research Team & Collaborators
Collaboration with Leading Research Institutions
Related Research
View all posts »Climate+Tech FactChecker: Fighting Climate Misinformation with Open Source AI
Climate+Tech launches an open source AI fact-checking system that combines multiple AI models to evaluate climate claims against scientific sources, achieving 85% agreement with expert consensus.
Automated Fact-Checking of Climate Change Claims with Large Language Models
A comprehensive overview of the Climinator tool, designed to automate the fact-checking of climate change claims using Large Language Models (LLMs).
The Fact-Checking Paradox: When Truth Wins But Society Loses
New research reveals a troubling paradox: fact-checking demonstrably improves belief accuracy, yet can simultaneously reduce overall social welfare through controversy costs. This analysis explores the implications for information policy and democratic discourse.
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We are open to all sorts of contributions. In particular, we seek use-cases, feedback, and datasets, and are grateful for any exchange with stakeholders.
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