On 29 October 2026, the LifeLong Learning Center (CKU) at Wroclaw University of Economics and Business hosted the 7th edition of Climate Academy.
This time, the focus was on spotting disinformation, fakes and green promises that don’t hold up – and on learning how to protect ourselves from them.
The event was organised by the Green Team Competence Centre and the UEW Sustainability Office, in partnership with Laboratoires Expanscience.
This year edition brought together a remarkably diverse audience. Students, academic staff and senior residents from the neighbourhood around the campus sat side by side. This meeting of generations proved to be a real strength – each group sees the media a little differently, and talking together helped everyone better understand where the traps lie.
The Academy was opened by Dr Karolina Daszyńska-Żygadło, Head of the UEW Sustainability Office. She was followed by the Rector of UEW, Prof. Bogusława Drelich-Skulska, who referred to the university’s mission and encouraged participants to exercise intellectual vigilance when selecting sources and information content.
Next, Joanna Bagińska, Finance Business Partner at Laboratoires Expanscience – the event partner – gave a presentation entitled “Green Promise or Real Change?”. She showed how to communicate a company’s positive impact on the environment and communities based solely on facts and verified measures of results. She also recalled a simple principle: let’s not ask only how much a product costs – let’s ask who and what bears the cost of producing it.
Climate or Con?
The plenary session concluded with a lecture by special guest Paulina Górska – a journalist, eco-activist and creator of the podcast “Lepszy Klimat” (“A Better Climate”), whose Instagram profile has around 170,000 followers. She has been recognised by Forbes Women and the UN Global Compact, among others. In her talk, “Climate or Con? Scams, Fakes and Green Promises”, she showed just how widespread disinformation has become.
The numbers were striking. Half of Polish social media users treat these platforms as their main source of information about the world, while 54% also name them as the main source of disinformation. Only 32% of readers read a full article rather than just the headline, and just 31% check information across several sources. Poland is the second most polarised country in the EU.
Disinformation is also a real problem for business. Its annual global cost is estimated at 417 billion dollars, and the World Economic Forum Risk Report identifies disinformation around climate and energy as one of the biggest global risks. Nine per cent of employees have already encountered a scam using the cloned voice or image of someone they know.
Three Workshops, Three Perspectives
After the lecture, participants moved on to workshops, with around 25 people in each room. Dr Dawid Kościewicz, Deputy Director of the UEW Library, ran “How Do We Know?”, teaching participants how to read data and charts. Ewa Kiełsznia, a Climate Leadership expert with UNEP, led the workshop “Don’t Fall for Disinformation!”. Piotr Cieśliński, a science journalist, physicist and co-founder of the Science section at Gazeta Wyborcza, explored with participants the question “Why Do Fake News Spread So Fast?”.
Event Partner
Our partner was Laboratoires Expanscience – owner of the Mustela brand. It is a family-owned, independent company with around 70 years of history. It sources active ingredients through avocado upcycling, among other methods, runs its own cultivation fields, has joined a UN initiative and publishes an annual transparency report.
One sentence sums up this Academy best: ask for evidence. Misinformation thrives on our haste — one moment of reflection, before you share, before you pay, before you believe, can change everything.
We would like to thank all the speakers, our partner and the participants!
