The UK’s advertising watchdog has banned a range of ads from major oil and gas companies for being misleading as part of a “greenwashing” campaign, or making something appear more sustainable than it really is.
The Advertising Standards Authority said on Wednesday that recent advertisements by Shell, Repsol and Petronas misled the public about the climate and environmental benefits of the group’s products in general.
The historical rulings are expected to set a precedent for how energy companies promote their business.
Banned ads included a TV promotion for Petronas, an online Repsol ad and poster, and TV and YouTube ads for Shell. The US space agency said these advertisements “omitted material information” by promoting its “green” offerings and plans, such as renewable energy and net-zero goals, without any mention of its larger polluting operations, and were therefore “misleading”.
In the rulings, the ASA noted that contaminated products still dominated the business of the three companies involved.
Shell’s banned ad touts its green credentials without mentioning its larger polluting operations. The oil group “strongly disagreed” with ASA©Shell’s decision
“Large scale oil and gas investment and extraction constituted the vast majority of (Shell’s) business model in 2022 and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future,” the regulator said, but the announcements in question gave the opposite impression.
Meanwhile, “Repsol has had a significant oil and gas exploration strategy,” and the biofuels and synthetic fuels it has promoted in advertising this year amount to “a fraction of its commercial activities compared to[its]large, ongoing and expanding fossil fuel production,” ASA said.
Likewise, the public will not understand “how significant Petronas’ continued contribution to greenhouse gas emissions is given the presentation and claims” in the 2022 announcement, the regulator added.
Veronica Winnall, of the Adfree Cities group, which led the complaint against Shell, said the ban “marks the end of the green washing line for fossil fuels in the UK. The world’s biggest polluters will not be allowed to advertise they are ‘green’ as they build new pipelines, refineries and platforms.” “.
Shell said it “strongly disagrees” with the ASA’s decision. Consumers were “well aware that Shell produces the oil and gas they depend on,” the company said, but they may not have known that it was also investing in “low-carbon, zero-carbon energy.”
Repsol said it has committed about a third of its “total investment to low-carbon companies for the duration of its strategic plan 2021-2025,” adding that it is committed to “Just an energy transition.” Petronas declined to comment.
The sanctions come as part of the UK regulator’s broader investigation into a series of environmental claims across industries including heating and transport.
This year the regulator cracked down on Etihad Airways and Lufthansa over misleading claims about aviation’s environmental impact, while last year it banned advertisements by HSBC that it deemed misrepresented the bank’s green credentials, and another by Tesco about its factory-based products.
The ASA also sets rules to govern carbon neutrality and net zero claims more broadly.
Regulators in the United Kingdom, the European Union and the United States have reported that police announcements, competition and financial markets are turning more attention to climate-related disclosures.
Law and climate experts expect the heightened scrutiny to translate into an increasing number of legal cases challenging potentially misleading claims or breaches of fiduciary duties.
Greenwashing MP Caroline Lucas said greenwashing ads “have been allowed to spread fake news about fossil fuels for far too long”. The government should give the regulator greater powers to enable it to be “preemptive”. . . To completely reject such misleading ads, she added, “and ban all ‘high-carbon ads’.”
Additional reporting by Tom Wilson
climate capital
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