Oil giants’ biofuel claims ‘greenwash’: activists

‘‘We’re currently witnessing a great deception, where the companies most responsible for catastrophically heating the planet are spending millions on advertising campaigns about how their business plans are focused on sustainability.’’

Johnny White

One of the world’s biggest oil companies is facing a legal challenge over its claims about biofuels as other fossil fuel companies are challenged by campaigners over ‘‘greenwashing’’.

ExxonMobil claimed on social media that it was growing algae for biofuels that could one day ‘‘cut their greenhouse gas emissions in half’’.

However, the campaign group ClientEarth claims the company spent almost twice as much on marketing its efforts to tackle climate change as it invested in biofuels.

ExxonMobil spent US$30 million (NZ$42m) a year, or about 0.14 per cent of its annual capital expenditure, developing biofuels and US$56m on green marketing, ClientEarth said.

ClientEarth is calling for all fossil fuel company advertisements to be banned unless they come with warnings.

The group is considering filing a complaint with the OECD, accusing the companies of breaching its guidelines that state that multinational enterprises should ‘‘not make representations or omissions, nor engage in any other practices, that are deceptive, misleading, fraudulent or unfair’’.

BP withdrew an advertising campaign last year after ClientEarth accused it of breaching the guidelines by focusing on low carbon energy products despite more than 96 per cent of its annual spend being on oil and gas.

ClientEarth has won several court rulings against corporations and governments, notably forcing the UK government to strengthen plans to tackle air pollution.

Other companies have been accused by the group of heavily promoting relatively minor schemes to cut emissions while in reality focusing on extracting huge volumes of oil and gas.

Shell claimed in an advertisement that it was tackling emissions by ‘‘protecting forests under threat’’, but ClientEarth said the company’s plans accounted for less than a tenth of its emissions.

‘‘We’re currently witnessing a great deception, where the companies most responsible for catastrophically heating the planet are spending millions on advertising campaigns about how their business plans are focused on sustainability,’’ Johnny White, a ClientEarth lawyer, said.

Exxon said the claims by ClientEarth were ‘‘false and misleading’’.

It claimed that since 2000 it had invested more than US$10 billion in ‘‘low carbon energy solutions’’.