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As we look towards Azerbaijan, the fossil fuel industry is already preparing for Brazil |
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The next round of the UN Climate Change Conference, COP29, is less than 2 weeks away. This year’s host Azerbaijan is the 2nd consecutive fossil fuel rich nation to host the conference. With the majority of government revenue originating from fossil fuels and the country set to increase gas production over the next 10 years, the conflict of interest is painfully obvious. Indeed, a new report by The Anti-Corruption Data Collective and Transparency International details how Azerbaijan is already using its Presidency to negatively influence negotiations, featuring a medley of greenwashing, oil industry capture, and using PR agencies to cook up a distorted image to the public.
For the climate movement, hopes are already firmly set on 2025’s COP30. Next year’s host nation Brazil may also be planning oil and gas expansion, but its “insufficient” overall rating on the Climate Action Tracker will come as a relief compared to the “critically” or “highly insufficient” ratings of Azerbaijan and the last two hosts. In principle, Brazil’s government is in a stronger position to lead on the climate agenda than any host for a number of years.
But the fossil fuel industry has already started to get a leg up on stamping out any such ambition. It recently came to light that Shell obtained the services of a well-known, trusted Brazilian scientist and social media influencer Átila Lamarino, Átila is famous in the country for pushing back against false narratives during the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, Nucleo has tracked 34 science influencer sponsorships in just 10 months in Brazil, across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. This signals a worrying trend that will only amplify the closer we get to COP30.
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NEW TACTICS, SAME OLD DELAY |
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Fossil fuel companies are experts in climate delay. Influencer marketing via paid sponsorships is something the industry has been unfurling its tentacles on in recent years. Shell sponsors its own mini army of influencers and even puts further advertising dollars behind the partnerships, as we identified last year during COP28.
More worrying is the trend of using science influencers. The fossil fuel industry has a history of paying the scientific community to cover up climate science. If you can’t get them anymore, then using science influencers is the next natural step. Shell is not alone - the Brazilian state owned oil company, Petrobras, appears to be following the same playbook. The organisation’s Director of Exploration and Production said that corals in the Amazon are “fake news”, and the the company sponsored science influencer Bianca Witzel.
Thais Lazzeri, founder of FALA Impact Studio in Brazil and creator of Mentira Tem Preço (“lies have a price”), which exposes the high cost of climate disinformation, socio-environmental falsehoods and hate speech in Brazil, told us:
“Content creators are the tip of an unprotected supply chain for the fossil fuel industry”.
And these partnerships have an impact. While there is growing backlash against Átila’s choice of sponsorship, this kind of promotional activity is still effective given influencers’ high credibility amongst their followers, coupled with the trend of weakening trust in traditional media.
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Fossil fuel advertising. For the fossil fuel industry, this is par for the course. They’ve shown over decades not to be good faith actors when it comes to climate action. As UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for this year, fossil fuel advertising of all types should be banned. This ought to apply to paid partnerships with content creators too. Simply marking content as #advertising in respective posts is not enough to protect from the harms they inflict.
Brazil. Brazil is being looked to as the climate action leader in the next 2 years, hosting the G20 in 2024, COP30 in 2025 and likely hosting key fora for information integrity too. That’s why COP30 will be so important. So far, the fossil fuel industry has gotten away with flooding negotiations and wielding undue influence on the system. Given the next Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Brazil - supported by the fossil fuel backed American Conservative Union, and attended by influential figures like Milei and Bolsonaro, will take place in Belem right before COP30, reducing interference from the fossil fuel industry needs to remain at the top of the climate community’s agenda as much as possible now and next year.
Influence the influencers. There are counter movements emerging, which aim to raise awareness in the influencer industry about unwittingly spreading fossil fuel misinformation, especially greenwashing. Movements spreading a culture of ethical sponsorships need to be recognized and supported to effect user pressure and ensure social media checks and balances.
That means:
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SIGN UP FOR COP, LOOK, LISTEN |
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Interested in receiving regular updates on climate misinformation at COP29? We’re proud to announce that we will be running our COP, Look, Listen newsletter for the fourth consecutive year. Sign up to receive the newsletter, coming to your inbox every other day during the summit.
If you will be on the ground at COP29 and have intel to share, please get in touch.
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As extreme weather becomes commonplace, so does its disinformation. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue and Media Matters were incredibly busy last month documenting climate disinformation during Hurricane Helene in the US. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the White House had to divert activities to debunk falsehoods spreading on X and TikTok, including posts that implore victims of the hurricanes to not accept the help offered by the US government. Sign up to COP, Look, Listen to hear more on extreme weather in an upcoming report. |
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Running like botwork… Another year, another 1,800 bots (at least) artificially boosting the talking points of the host nation of COP. Marc Owen Jones of Northwestern University in Qatar analysed 10,800 suspicious on X in a one week period, and found two thirds of analysed accounts were consistent with bot activity, and three quarters were created just this year. So much for removing bots from X. If Azerbaijan is behind it, they probably took inspiration from the UAE last year. |
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Dirty money is powering our favourite sports. A New Weather Institute report found at least $5.6 billion worth of 205 active sponsorship deals covering sports in March 2024. Considering the existential threat that climate change poses to sports, this needs to change. Who wins the sportswashing World Cup? Saudi Arabia, with Aramco handing out almost $1.3 billion across ten deals. |
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Policy is one thing - enforcement is another. Advertising exchanges including Google and Amazon continue to profit from climate misinformation. In fact, from just checking three websites that publish climate misinformation, Check My Ads and CAAD found 15 exchanges profiting from the practice. Having a policy on the matter doesn’t seem to change anything - eight of the offending exchanges have a rule against it, while seven don’t. |
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Project Oil and Gas. More pollution, less access to nature, less economic diversity. A briefing from the Center for American Progress has found that, if implemented, Project 2025 would abet the oil and gas industry at the cost of everyday Americans. This is on top of the existing subsidies and over $250 billion of profit the industry made in the US between 2021 and 2023. |
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If you have any investigative leads CAAD should explore, want to find out more about our research and intel, or interview one of our members, please email contact@caad.info. |
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