Climate Fact-Checking Research & Development Collaboration

CLIMATE+TECH is an AI Think-Tank bridging the gap between research and local stakeholders in climate change adaptation, democratizing knowledge using AI technology. It stays up-to-date with research and has a focus on Climate.

Our Mission

CLIMATE+TECH is democratizing climate knowledge through AI technology, creating tools that:

• Verify Climate Claims: Check statements about climate change against trustworthy sources like IPCC reports
• Detect Greenwashing: Identify and verify green claims and potential misleading greenwashing
• Combat Disinformation: Provide journalistic fact checks for political disinformation

Core Research Team

Interdisciplinary expertise from academia and industry

MARKUS LEIPPOLD

UZH Professor, Academic Advisory Lead - Academic Research

CHRISTIAN WÖRLE

C+T Managing Partner, Architecture

MARTIN BURGHART

C+T Researcher, AI Engineers - AI Engineering

MARC BERSZICK

C+T Advisor, AI Expert - AI Advisory

VERA SCHMITT

XplAINLP Group Lead TU Berlin

JASON TSZANG

C+T Researcher

TORSTEN SEWING

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

Technical Approach

Our toolkit implements the Advocate Mediator Pattern against climate feedback datasets, using what we call the “Climinator pattern” for robust fact verification. 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, or climate advocate, there’s a place for you in our community. Help us build the future of climate 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 knowledge through AI.