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Oil majors have been accused of \u201cquietly abandoning\u201d their climate pledges in an attempt to justify the continued use of polluting fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
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New research from Clean Creatives, a project for climate-conscious PR and advert professionals, has tracked how Big Oil has been \u201csystemically\u201d changing its narrative over the last four years \u2013 despite repeated warnings around the planet\u2019s warming.<\/p>\n
The report, titled Toxic Accounts: From Greenwashing to Gaslighting<\/a>, analyses more than 1,800 pieces of campaign material from fossil fuel giants BP, Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron between 2020 and 2024. <\/p>\n This includes paid advertisements across social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram \u2013 as well as TV ads, library archives, press releases, investor communications and executive speeches.<\/p>\n Is Big Oil guilty of \u2018climate gaslighting\u2019?<\/p>\n The report found that campaigns at the beginning of the analysis emphasised climate targets and clean energy transition pledges, frequently positioning themselves as transition partners.<\/p>\n However, by 2023, messaging \u201cincreasingly framed\u201d oil and gas as \u201cpermanent, indispensable and essential to economic stability and national security<\/a>\u201d. <\/p>\n In 2020, BP moved from its net zero pledge and \u2018greening companies\u2019 rhetoric to campaigns that Clean Creatives says defend its continued expansion of gas and oil, while scaling back its renewable ambitions. <\/p>\n Chevron also pivoted from its \u2018Human Energy\u2019 positioning to \u201cnationalist messaging\u201d linking domestic fossil fuel production to economic and national security, the report found.<\/p>\n Researchers warn that despite differences in tone, all of the oil majors in the analysis followed similar narrative shifts, moving from \u201cpart of the solution\u201d to \u201cyou can\u2019t live without us\u201d messaging.<\/p>\n The report found that campaigns increasingly promoted liquefied natural gas (LNG), carbon capture and storage (CCS), blue hydrogen, biofuels and renewable diesel as climate solutions, despite evidence that these technologies remain fossil fuel-derived or unproven at scale. <\/p>\n \u201cThe speed at which companies shifted to energy-security messaging correlated with their financial performance,\u201d the report states. <\/p>\n \u201cChevron and ExxonMobil were quick to shift their messaging toward fossil fuel dominance, and as a result, led the market.\u201d<\/p>\n The report also found that Shell, which was accused of downplaying fossil fuels\u2019 climate impact<\/a> last year, transitioned from presenting itself as a net zero leader to emphasising LNG as a longer-term growth market.<\/p>\n Keeping fossil fuels \u2018profitable\u2019 amid changing attitudes<\/p>\n \u201cGreenwashing has taken on a new form,\u201d says Nayantara Dutta, head of research at Clean Creatives and lead author of the report. <\/p>\n \u201cInstead of making false claims, oil majors are promoting false solutions like CCS and natural gas, even though they are derived from and create long-term dependence on fossil fuels.\u201d<\/p>\n Dutta argues that oil companies are crafting a narrative that keeps them \u201cprofitable and in power\u201d in the face of growing opposition.<\/p>\n Transitioning away from fossil fuels became a flashpoint discussion at last year\u2019s UN COP30 summit in Bel\u00e9m, despite not being an official agenda item. <\/p>\n More than 90 countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, backed the idea of a roadmap to allow each nation to set its own targets to move towards green energy. <\/p>\n Despite the growing support for this idea, all mentions of fossil fuels were scrubbed from the final deal in the last hours of the summit. It means hope for a fossil fuel-free future now lies outside the UN\u2019s remit.<\/p>\n A report by Carbon Majors recently found that 17 of the top 20 emitters in 2024 were firms controlled by nations that went on to block the COP30 roadmap<\/a>. This includes Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, India, Russia and China.<\/p>\n Big Oil and the war on Iran<\/p>\n \u201cThe transition from greenwashing to advocacy of fossil fuel energy dominance is the latest rhetorical twist in the manipulation of the public to accept greenhouse gas emissions as just part of doing business,\u201d says Robert Brulle, an environmental sociologist at Brown University. <\/p>\n \u201cMeanwhile, the war in the Middle East shows the folly of the idea that fossil fuels provide \u2018energy security\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Multiple experts have used the war on Iran to highlight the urgent need for a clean energy transition, as oil and gas prices continue to soar. <\/p>\n