Lawmakers warned that oil companies are using increasingly sophisticated messaging tactics to portray themselves as climate champions at the UK’s first parliamentary debate on calls to ban advertising for fossil fuels.
The session was triggered by a petition signed by more than 110,000 people calling for a ban on fossil fuel ads and sponsorship and backed by environmentalist Chris Packham. MPs from the governing Labour party and opposition Greens and Liberal Democrats spoke in support of a ban on climate and health grounds.
“We are in an era of compliant deception: An ad can be accurate but also misleading. A message can be truthful in parts but dishonest in tone,” Labour MP Jacob Collier said in opening remarks to Monday’s debate. “It is a bit like a politician claiming that they never technically lied but conveniently forgetting that they answered a different question altogether.”
The groundswell of public support for a fossil ad ban reflects growing concerns that the billions of dollars spent on advertising and sponsorships by the oil and gas industry are serving to prolong demand for its products and shield companies from pressure to decarbonise.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres brought these concerns to global attention in June last year when he urged governments to ban fossil fuel advertising and called on advertising and PR firms to stop working for the industry – warning it was “toxic” to their bands. More than 100 UK advertising sector organisations, worth more than £900 million in turnover, have signed an open letter calling on MPs to support a ban.
Collier cited a DeSmog review of internal BP documents published in May that showed how the oil major viewed sponsorships as central to its strategy to allay public concerns over its role in the climate crisis while simultaneously lobbying against policies aimed at tackling it.
Collier also referred to a DeSmog investigation published in July last year that revealed oil and gas companies had run hundreds of advertising campaigns on London public transport since Mayor Sadiq Khan’s 2018 “zero carbon city” pledge.
“Fossil fuel ads appear in Westminster station, for example, not because consumers need urgent advice about offshore drilling, but because that’s where we the policymakers walk,” Collier said.
Collier also cited by research by Badvertising and the New Weather Institute on the billions of dollars spent by the oil and gas industry to bolster its reputation by sponsoring sports.
Tobacco-style Ban
Speaking in favour of a ban, Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Green Party and MP for Bristol Central, drew a parallel with now widely accepted public health measures such as compulsory seatbelts, and bans on tobacco advertising and smoking in confined spaces.
“Social and regulatory change like this often creates an uproar when it’s first proposed, only for it to be accepted as extremely obvious and the previous status quo seemingly appalling,” Denyer said.
Simon Opher, a doctor and Labour MP for Stroud, backed a ban on health grounds, citing a government estimate that air pollution could have been responsible for up to 43,000 deaths in 2019, cited in June report from the Royal College of Physicians.
“The fossil fuel industry spends millions on promoting itself as green, innovative and responsible, while continuing to invest in exploration and extraction that push us further towards climate and health catastrophe,” Opher said. “That is not just misleading, but dangerous.”
Andrew Bowie, a Conservative MP representing a constituency in northeast Scotland, a hub for the North Sea oil industry, said a blanket ban on fossil fuel advertising would be “neither proportionate nor necessary when robust oversight is already in place.”
“I’m afraid that the ban advocated by this position would be purely ideological,” said Bowie, who also serves as the shadow minister for energy security and net zero. “It would damage investor confidence, and it would be counterproductive in reducing carbon emissions. And I’m proud to see BP, Shell, Total, Equinor and the rest, investing in music, art, culture, education, sport across the UK.”
Sian Berry Green MP for Brighton Pavillion, responded that Bowie’s “speech so far has been merely an advert for the fossil fuel industry.”
DeSmog reported at the weekend that Equinor, a Norwegian oil company, is investing more than £200,000 to support mobile science classrooms on the Shetland Islands, the nearest communities to its proposed Rosebank oilfield project in the North Sea. The initiative forms part of a range of educational sponsorships Equinor has pursued in the UK, including EnergyTown, a computer game aimed at schoolchildren.
‘Exact Phrase’
Representing the government, Michael Shanks, under-secretary of state for energy security and net zero, said the UK already had a “robust” regulatory regime in place via the Advertising Standards Authority and the government had no plans to restrict or ban fossil fuel advertising.
“For us to win the political argument, we have to bring people with us,” Shanks said. “Instead of banning and blocking, our emphasis needs to be much more on empowering people to make informed choices.”
Responding to Shanks, Denyer, the Green Party co-leader, asked if he was “aware that that exact phrase, “informed choice”, was used by the tobacco companies to campaign against the ban on tobacco advertising?” which the UK adopted in 2002.
“I am reading from a memorandum by British American Tobacco that was submitted to Parliament in 2000,” Denyer said.
In his response, Shanks said that the government was committed to implementing Britain’s transition to clean energy by pursuing its target of net zero emissions by 2050.
“We think that the action needed from government is to drive forward this transition and to deliver jobs, energy security and climate leadership, and that is what we will continue to do,” Shanks said.
The post “Compliant Deception”: MPs Warn of Oil Industry Greenwashing at Debate on Proposed Fossil Ad Ban appeared first on DeSmog.
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