While the largest oil companies are still in the business selling fossil fuels for profit, their marketing is all about going green.
Well over half of Big Oil’s advertisements promote the message that they have embraced clean energy and emissions reductions, and other such “green claims,” according to a new report from InfluenceMap, a think-tank based in London. Researchers found that BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies spent an estimated $750 million last year to promote a climate-friendly image — and the report calls that “a conservative estimate.”
The report also found that all five companies were on course to increase oil production by 2026. Together, these companies spend only about a tenth of their investments on pursuits they consider “low-carbon.” Shell had the widest gap between its words and actions: While the company touted its carbon-cutting efforts 70 percent of the time, it only put 10 percent of capital expenditures toward low-carbon investments. These companies have also lobbied governments to weaken policies in renewable energy and increase the production of fossil fuels.
To understand what message oil companies were sending to the public, InfluenceMap’s researchers analyzed more than 3,400 social media posts, press releases, blog posts, and other communications from oil companies last year. They found that 60 percent contained environmentally-friendly messages, while only 23 percent promoted oil and gas. The most popular message was to adopt clean energy and then to make public their efforts in reducing emissions. Many oil companies have a plan to zero out their emissions by 2050 — though their plans often fail to account for the emissions from the fossil fuels they’re selling.
These companies are clearly trying to distance themselves from oil, their main product, in their marketing. Consider BP’s “Who we are” webpage, which touts a goal of “reimagining energy for people and our planet” and helping “the world reach new zero.” You have to scroll to the bottom of the page to find any mention of “oil” at all, and even then, it’s in a section about how the company is moving away from the fossil fuel.
“It’s really clear,” said Faye Holder, a co-author of the new report. “They are trying to get across the message to people that they’re not an oil company — they are part of the solution on climate change.” Shell’s “About us” webpage doesn’t mention oil and gas at all; neither does Chevron’s, “the human energy company.”
The findings confirm previous research that showed a major disconnect between Big Oil’s words and actions. Oil companies have been emphasizing their green credentials to cover up environmentally destructive practices for decades, a marketing tradition called “greenwashing.” And people buy it. Research has shown that public relations agencies are effective in promoting positive change. shaped the public debateClimate change 30 yearsPopular phrases include “carbon footprint” and “clean coal”to stress individual responsibility and deflect blame from fossil-fuels. Greenwashing is so common that it was recently added to the dictionary. Merriam-Webster dictionary.
One way to tell if companies are greenwashing is to see how they’re spending their money. Overall, 12 percent of Big Oil’s capital expenditures for 2022 are expected to go toward “low-carbon” activities, based on information disclosed by the companies. And that category is generous: Both Total and Shell appear to have put natural gas investments in this “low-carbon” bucket, according to the InfluenceMap report, which jibes with advertisements that promote the fossil fuel as “green.”
Then there’s political lobbying. The new research showed that four out of five of the five companies, with the exception of Total, have directly lobbyized for policies to encourage further oil-and-gas development since the beginning in 2021. In testimony to Congress in April, for instance, Shell’s CEO Gretchen Watkins advocated for permitting new oil and gas projects in the Gulf of Mexico.
The report also revealed that all but Chevron have lobbied for weakening renewable energy policies and encouraging long-term natural gasoline use. ExxonMobil Inc. ran advertisements Proposed legislation to ban gas in New York City’s new buildings was rejected. It falsely warned homeowners that they could be forced into paying thousands of dollars to convert to electric appliances. BP and Shell are members the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group that actively opposes climate policy.
According to the report, CEOs are leading the charge in promoting a green image of their companies. “Companies that are carbon intensive today — but have an ambition to decarbonise and get to net zero like @bp_plc does — are needed by the world every bit as much as green companies,” Bernard Looney, BP’s CEO, posted on Instagram Last April
LinkedIn is their preferred place to do this. There, 72 percent or more of the CEOs at Total, Shell and BP make green claims regarding their business. “It really indicates this effort is being led from the front, and that it’s being pushed by the leaders of these companies,” Holder said.