It’s time to ban fossil fuel advertising

Walking or driving down any bustling African city street, you will spot large neon billboards flashing corporate logos by oil and gas giants. Their impressive slogans shout about a cleaner, greener future. The adverts boast of the companies’ sustainability and eco-friendly practices. 

Sleek imagery

This sleek imagery, though, starkly contrasts the reality of fossil fuel consumption. This becomes clear only a few kilometres down the road. Smoky silhouettes of towering refineries loom on the horizon. Every day, they belch thick clouds of smoke into the atmosphere.  Here and everywhere, the air is heavy with pollution. 

This is the reality of greenwashing. A deceptive marketing practice where oil, gas and coal companies portray themselves as climate-conscious while simultaneously engaging in harmful environmental practices.

It is a familiar tactic with most destructive industries. In the 1930s, for instance, the tobacco industry enlisted doctors to endorse cigarettes to “health-wash” their cancerous products. This was meant to downplay cigarette harm to human health. 

Nearly 100 years later, the same trick is back, this time with the oil industry. Fossil fuel companies commonly but dangerously highlight a few sustainable initiatives to distract consumers from the environmental damage of their activities. 

Behind this green facade, companies relentlessly extract and sell coal, gas and oil. How can companies whose primary business destroys the planet genuinely claim to engage in sustainable development? 

Through the decades, Big Oil has gone through multiple phases of climate change denial. In the first phase in the 1980s, companies such as ExxonMobil pretended climate change was not happening. They dismissed the science as a hoax.

In the United States, they spent a fortune on advertising to muddy evidence that climate change is a threat to life on the planet. 

In the second phase of the mid-2000s and 2010s, they acknowledged that climate change was real. Still, they denied that their products were responsible for the climate mess. This is despite all the scientific evidence pointing fingers at emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. 

We are currently in the third phase where Big Oil pretends to acknowledge the mess while feigning action. In this cycle of deception, oil companies have routinely been announcing their seemingly noble and ambitious sustainability targets. 

The commitment to “net-zero” by 2050 is a common one. This date is so distant that current executives will probably not be around to account for their actions. The climate crisis is here with us. We cannot put off interventions until later.

In South Africa, for instance, the cycle of denial is already entering the fifth phase. In this cycle, fossil fuel companies claim that their commitment to social justice and economic equality has been on course. Shockingly, they say they can now slow down their decarbonisation initiatives to protect jobs in the fossil industry. 

By touching on the emotive subject of employment and people’s livelihoods, oil, gas and coal companies have been deceiving us that they have the people’s best interests at heart. The reality, though, is horrid. Through their practices, these companies destroy the lives and livelihoods of people globally and far away from their operations.

In 2001, BP rebranded itself as ‘‘Beyond Petroleum’’ and launched campaigns promoting its investments in renewable energy. Two decades later, BP went from “beyond petroleum” to announcing plans to produce more oil and gas.  

Today, Shell remains a big global player in oil and gas production despite its small-scale renewable projects. In its latest energy transition strategy in March, Shell, for instance, abandoned a key climate target for 2035 and weakened another goal for 2030.

These instances of greenwashing have created the illusion that oil companies are part of the green movement. The result? A misled public and the delayed transition to genuine renewable energy solutions.   

It is, therefore, time to challenge this cycle of misinformation that oil multinationals have been spreading. After all, the world has agreed to stop further emissions on multiple instances. Yet, coal, oil and gas companies keep announcing new fossil fuel exploration projects. This should not go unchallenged.

Providing alternative means of energy does not give these companies the leeway to continue damaging the environment. Africans demand clean energy because the fossil fuel industry has historically failed to light up the continent. Their core business has contributed to the slow transition to renewable energy solutions. 

Fossil fuel companies promise a greener future but continue to destroy the air and planet. To allow greenwashing to persist through advertising is, therefore, to create a dangerous reliance on their products. This explains why the world continues to heavily depend on gas, coal, petroleum and oil today. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged countries to ban fossil fuel advertising and implement regulations that set in motion a just transition to sustainable energy practices. 

Oil companies owe consumers truthful information about their products. To combat greenwashing, regulations are necessary. These regulations should include guidelines on imagery, language and environmental claims to make it easier to identify, report and address greenwashing.  

As currently designed, renewable energy companies cannot compete with oil multinationals. Their message is chocked by the din of advertisements from fossil fuel giants who set aside multibillion-dollar war chests every year. 

Suppressing the empty green rhetoric will create a level playing field and allow renewable energy projects to compete fairly with other forms. But only a ban on fossil fuel adverts will shift not only the public narrative on energy but also resources toward investment in renewable energy.  

This has worked in some countries. In 2022, France became the first country to ban fossil fuel adverts, leading to increased investments in offshore wind and solar projects. 

Similarly, The Netherlands banned fossil fuel adverts from its public transport to align with its goal of a carbon-neutral economy by 2050. This move has spurred growth in renewable energy in the country, including expanded electric vehicle infrastructure. 

Pursuing a similar path would make renewable energy the dominant power source. This would also set the world on course to meet its climate goals for a sustainable future for all. 

It is only by ending the fossil fuel regime that the world stands a chance against climate change.

Lazola is the lead Fossil Ad Ban campaigner at Fossil Free South Africa. Karabo is a renewable energy campaigner at Power Shift Africa