The Belgian Environmental Information Barometer was officially launched on Monday, January 26 of 2026, with the presentation of its first results. Inspired by the French Observatoire des medias sur écologie , the project was initiated by the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA) and the Federal Public Health Service (SPF). During 2026, it will be expanded to cover the whole of Belgian territory, initially driven by Federal Environment Minister Jean-Luc Crucke. Implemented by the NGO QuotaClimat, the Barometer represents a major step forward in measuring and understanding how environmental issues are covered in Belgian media.
A new tool in order to measure, to understand and to improve
The Barometer aims to:
- Analyze – quantitatively and qualitatively – how environmental issues are covered in audiovisual news programs, in both the north and south of the country;
- Identify and better understand climate misinformation and disinformation;
- Engage in structured dialogue with media outlets to identify good practices and areas for improvement, in a spirit of co-construction.
Eventually, the Barometer will be extended to print media and social networks, to provide a comprehensive view of the information ecosystem.
First results: room for improvement, but a solid foundation
The first results cover 15 months of French-language TV news programs (La Une, La Trois, RTL-TVI, LN24, and Trends Z). Key findings in Belgium include:
- Environmental coverage remains heavily news-driven, spiking around extreme events or COP summits.
- Climate events are generally well contextualized – extreme weather is linked to climate change more often than in France (the “climate”/”heatwave” mention ratio was nearly seven times higher than in France for the 2025 heatwaves).
- Climate and biodiversity coverage is less siloed than in France: biodiversity coverage (2.2% on average) stays close to climate coverage (2.6% on average), which is only about 20% higher than biodiversity coverage, compared to a 45% gap in France.
- There’s a relative balance between consequences, solutions, and causes: in August 2025, about 30% of climate mentions concerned consequences (heatwaves), but this didn’t crowd out coverage of solutions.
- Notable differences between channels: LN24 gives minimal coverage to environmental issues, similar to French news channels, similar to French news channels, while Trends Z devotes a significant share (>7%) to environment and transition topics, reflecting its environment–economy angle.
- Strong sectoral disparities: key sectors like housing remain underrepresented (5%) despite their important weight in greenhouse gas emissions, while media debate stays focused on energy (37%) and, to a lesser extent, transport and mobility (24%).
Results covering the entire Belgian audiovisual landscape (both French- and Dutch-speaking) are expected in september. They will later on be complemented by analyses of climate disinformation alongside regular consultations with media stakeholders.
A European ambition for information integrity
This rollout is part of a broader push: the European Union recently signed the Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change_final launched at COP30, which encourages each ratifying country to implement a national action plan.
This is an urgent matter: the ecological crisis is accelerating and climate disinformation is becoming normalized, even though it has been identified as a strategic risk to democracy and to science-based decision-making.
“Launched a year and a half ago in France, the Observatory of Media on Ecology has established itself as a unique tool for measuring the extent of disinformation and mapping the factors that curb it – or, on the contrary, enable it – within the media ecosystem. Its deployment in several countries represents a first step towards both a European and national response to this phenomenon. After Belgium, the tool will be launched in the coming months in other countries such as Germany, Poland and Spain.”
Louna Wemaere, Head of European Advocacy at QuotaClimat.
