As countries discuss a way forward on the increasingly urgent climate crisis at COP28, a new report by Greenpeace Canada and the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) exposes widespread greenwashing practices fossil fuel companies use to maintain social license and avoid accountability for the harms they cause. ‘Greenwashing big oil & gas: the fossil fuel deception playbook’ breaks down the sophisticated greenwashing tactics that fossil fuel companies use to mislead the public into believing they are acting responsibly.
These pervasive industry tactics enable companies to sidestep accountability and perpetuate the illusion of responsibility by obscuring the truth about their products’ environmental and health impacts.
For readers seeking actionable steps, it concludes with a section on taking meaningful action. For example, it provides a roadmap for reporting misleading ads on X (Twitter), Facebook and Instagram and to Ad Standards Canada.
With COP28 discussions intensifying urgency of climate action, rising consumer costs due to high fossil fuel prices, the Competition Bureau’s ongoing investigation into the Canadian Gas Association’s misleading claims about gas, and pending federal changes to the Competition Act, this report is a timely catalog of big oil and gas’ playbook and offers concrete steps that government and the public can take to rein in harmful greenwashing claims.
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