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Welcome back to COP, LOOK, LISTEN. The big news yesterday was the record 2,456 fossil fuel lobbyists granted access to this year’s conference. While fossil fuel groups clearly invest considerable resources into political influence on the ground, they also seek to engage and persuade millions online through ads or sponsored content.
With this in mind, we set out to analyse fossil fuel adverts on Google’s revamped Ads Transparency Center. However, the tool provides such limited information that it is borderline unusable beyond a surface analysis - see more below. Despite this, the volume of greenwashing we found is a major concern. So concerning that we asked Faye Holder of InfluenceMap what she thought. She said:
“Advertising and lobbying are both essential to the oil and gas industry’s toolkit for influencing policymakers. This research shows that despite Google’s bold promises on climate, the company continues to profit from misleading greenwashing ads during climate negotiations. We need real transparency of online advertising in order to prevent the spread of misleading greenwashing ads.”
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We checked the Ad Transparency Center between 30th November and 4th December 2023 to see whether some of the largest oil and gas companies ran live campaigns. The table below summarises our findings, with some
indicative examples after that. Note that most companies promoted their products and services - including in the total ads count. The snapshot column focuses on the concerning amount of greenwashing claims, executional greenwashing (nature-rinsing) and woke-washing that we found.
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This video on YouTube, promoted through adverts, has 4.7 million views at the time of writing. It covers the Greatest Hits of greenwashing, from “nature-based solutions” to “vacuuming out the CO2 from the atmosphere”.
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This video on YouTube, promoted through adverts, has 4.7 million views at the time of writing. It covers the Greatest Hits of greenwashing, from “nature-based solutions” to “vacuuming out the CO2 from the atmosphere”.
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ExxonMobil’s “heavy industry with low emissions” advert in the United States features carbon capture and “clean energy from hydrogen” as key solutions to decarbonisation. The video places a woman of colour front and centre in the advert, despite the company's management committee consisting entirely of white men until 2021.
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We wish we could share more quantitative insight, but Google does not provide it. Here are two major categories of problem
we identified with the Ads Transparency Center:
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Minimal data:
No financial spend or view count
Targeting data is only available at the country-level
Although custom time windows are searchable, on a per-ad basis you can only view “last seen”. This gives no indication of when an advert first ran or for how long.
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A nightmare interface:
You cannot search or summarise by keyword. The only option is to manually scroll through an advertiser’s back catalogue to find examples.
Results are inconsistent, making it impossible to accurately compare brands. Sometimes multiple brands are bundled into one parent company. Other times they are presented subsidiary-by-subsidiary.
Detailed information can only be accessed by clicking through to ads one by one, making systematic work highly tedious.
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Action 1
One of the largest Big Tech companies should be setting a better standard on ad transparency, especially as their Ads Transparency Center boasts about “a safe and open internet”. Policymakers and journalists may want to pressure platforms on their poor transparency, and ask why so little effort has gone into its design.
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Action 2
Gaping loopholes inTerms of Service make Google’s search engine, Display network and YouTube platform open season for greenwashing. Again, we should consider whether such a platform should be directly profiting off of such activity.
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The Google Ads Transparency Center is poorly designed. A search for “Exxon” brings up multiple subsidiaries that need to be checked one-by-one, or “Exxon Mobil Corporation” which contains
some, but not all of the ExxonMobil brands within it.
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Record number of fossil lobbyists overwhelm summit:Latest analysis from the Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition reveals a surge in fossil fuel lobbyists at this year’s summit. The headcount has skyrocketed to 2,456, a four-fold increase from COP27. Disturbingly, these fossil lobbyists have now outpaced delegates from the ten most climate-vulnerable nations. KBPO members are calling for the implementation of a robust Accountability Framework to shield climate negotiations from the undue influence of Big Polluters going forward.
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Yes, X can still be relevant: On X (formerly Twitter), discussions around COP28 exploded in the first few days of the summit. Comparing the overall volume of posts with keywords like
“COP28” between 26 November and 2 December, we found a significant rise in Portuguese (<1k to over 20k); English (<20k to over 300k); German (<1k to nearly 4k); Spanish (<5k to over 80k); and in multiple Indian languages (<25k to over 500k).
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Much COP28 content on X/Twitter is engaging in good faith, but misinformation is also rife across languages and geographies. One viral example: last night, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson uploaded a 15-minute interview with infamous climate pundit and “anti-woke” crusader Michael Shellenberger. In it, they refer to
climate action as “a grotesque display of anti-human power”; an “attack on modern civilisation”; a Western “death cult”; a “hatred of humankind” (especially the working class and those living in the Global South); an attempt to “stifle natural gas”; and a “grift” by global elites to create energy scarcity and control populations. Shellenberger also condemns so-called “ESG bullying”. The video has already racked up 3.8m views, 59k likes and 19k retweets in under 24 hours.
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Big media’s dirty secret: In an exposé by Desmog and Drilled, the veil is lifted on partnerships between the fossil fuel industry and trusted media giants like Bloomberg, Reuters, The Financial Times and The New York Times. The investigation reveals that in-house ad agencies at these outlets are producing “news-adjacent advertorials” for oil and gas companies, including podcasts and events that promote everything from carbon capture to “renewable biogas”. Amidst growing demands for accountability, the piece underscores the need for tighter scrutiny on industry PR and the commercial entities who launder their
talking points into the mainstream.
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Welcome to our new regular feature, the greenwashing tracker! The sheer quantity of promotions by the fossil fuel industry is a lot to get your head around
… so we’ve got you covered. Found something particularly interesting? Send it our way at contact@caad.info
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BP promoting “sustainable” aviation fuels
BP are pushing sustainable aviation fuel on LinkedIn, without mentioning that such fuels are currently viewed as a “myth…that won’t power climate-safe air travel” and currently constitute just 0.05% of total jet fuel consumption.
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Shell’s “mini soap
opera” in Brazil
Shell is advertising with Brazilian influencer Pequena Lo to promote a Shell “mini-novela” (mini-series) on the energy transition. Pequena Lo states that “fossil energy sources will gradually be replaced by renewable and cleaner sources. Shell is working towards a safe energy transition, balancing today’s and tomorrow’s energy sources to be more sustainable”.
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ADNOC advertising on X
Adnoc are actively promoting #TowardsNetZero and #EnergyForLife (both hashtags also seen in our main feature today) on X.
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The fossil fuel industry advertises on Reddit, too
Honda is determined to realise a “carbon-neutral future by 2050”. Unfortunately for us, Honda was wise enough to turn off comments for its ad. So we didn’t get to see Redditors’ hot takes.
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That was a long one - thanks for making it this far. As tomorrow is a ‘rest day’ in Dubai, we will follow suit. So see you on Friday!
If you have any investigative leads CAAD should explore, or want to find out more about our research and intel during the summit, please email contact@caad.info. We also have team members on the ground in the UAE who are available for interviews and side-events as useful.
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