What Kinds of Investigations and Stories Does DeSmog Publish?

Updated

DeSmog publishes investigative journalism and analysis focused on the public relations, lobbying, and financial networks that shape climate and environmental policy. Its reporting centers on exposing how fossil fuel, agribusiness, chemical, and pharmaceutical interests organize to influence science, regulation, and public debate. The site combines daily news with long-form investigations, data-driven "Mapped" projects, and themed series.

Core Investigative Focus

DeSmog's reporting clusters around a few recurring targets:

  • PR and lobbying networks: Investigations into consulting firms, trade bodies, and advocacy groups working for fossil fuel and industrial clients. One featured story, for example, reports that a consulting firm lobbied for both a town hit by a climate disaster and a fossil fuel group at the same time.
  • Climate disinformation and science denial: Tracking the organizations, funders, and messaging strategies behind efforts to undermine climate science.
  • Greenwashing: Examining how companies and campaigns present environmentally harmful activities as sustainable.
  • Climate lawsuits: Coverage of legal action against governments and corporations over climate impacts.
  • Money and influence: Databases and maps tracing funding, lobbying contracts, and personal networks—such as a map of advertising and PR industry contracts from 2020–2024, or a map of a political leader's inner circle of lobbyists and activists.

Story Formats You'll Find

DeSmog mixes several formats, which helps explain the range of what appears on the site:

Format What it looks like
News reports Timely coverage of lobbying, policy fights, and corporate influence
Long-form investigations Document-based reporting, often drawing on internal slidedecks, filings, or leaked materials
Series Sustained reporting on one theme, such as intensive livestock pollution or the COP30 climate summit
Databases Searchable or structured collections on disinformation, agribusiness, lobbying, and networks
Mapped investigations Visual projects charting relationships, contracts, and influence routes
Opinion & Analysis Commentary and interpretive pieces
Multimedia Photos, videos, cartoons, and maps

Examples of Recent Stories

The homepage evidence shows the breadth of coverage:

  • An investigation into how pro-oil groups generate viral content, based on internal slidedecks explaining a strategy to get millions of views for industry talking points.
  • A report on how major pharmaceutical trade bodies tried to weaken the rules of a UN nature fund.
  • Coverage of Alberta residents near a proposed carbon capture project who say their rights are being signed away.
  • A photo essay linking algae blooms at European swimming spots to heatwaves and factory farm pollution.
  • Reporting on a European Union think tank's return to Brussels and questions about who funds it.

Themed Series and Recurring Beats

DeSmog organizes some coverage into named series and topic areas. The site's navigation lists beats including Energy, Science Denial, Ad & PR, Social Justice, Agriculture, Politics and Policy, False Solutions, Finance, and Canada. Series have included "Investigating Intensive Livestock Pollution" and coverage tied to the COP30 climate summit, including a map of Big Food's routes to influence at the summit.

What This Means for Readers

If you want to understand who is funding and shaping climate policy messaging—rather than just what a company says publicly—DeSmog's investigations and databases are built for that. If you need breaking news on climate politics, the news section covers it, though the site's distinctive value is in document-driven exposés of PR and lobbying networks. The "Mapped" projects are especially useful when you need to see relationships between organizations, funders, and campaigns rather than read a single narrative.

The site also carries Subscribe and Donate prompts, indicating it is reader-supported, but the available page evidence does not specify pricing or access terms.