In the fight against climate disinformation, the messengers – not just the message – are increasingly coming under fire.
An international campaign spearheaded by the Global Climate and Health Alliance (GCHA), called Break the Fossil Influence – Fossil-Free Health Communications, is adding more muscle to that scrutiny, by shunning the public relations firms that work with fossil fuel entities.
More than 30 organizations, representing the interests of more than 12 million health professionals around the world, have signed a commitment to no longer work with PR agencies that also provide services to the fossil fuel industry. They include Amref Health Africa, Médecins Sans Frontières, The Lancet, the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations, the World Federation of Public Health Associations, the World Organization of Family Doctors and the Yale Center on Climate Change and Health.
Many in the fossil fuel industry have shamelessly greenwashed, even as they have sought to delay climate action – with lobbying, legal threats and massive ad campaigns.
– António Guterres, UN Secretary-General
“Fossil fuels are making people sick – and the companies behind them are spending millions on advertising and PR to cover it up,” Shweta Narayan, campaign lead at GCHA, said in a statement. “The same PR firms spreading fossil fuel disinformation are also working with health organizations – a clear conflict of interest for health.”
It’s not just physical health: a contingent of mental health professionals who wrote an open letter in support of the campaign noted that mental health is at stake too. Air pollution has been linked to anxiety, depression and psychosis, they wrote, especially for children and children of mothers exposed to particulate matter during pregnancy. A survey of 10,000 young people from 10 countries in 2021 found that nearly two-thirds are “very” or “extremely” worried about climate change.
“We see it every day: the quiet despair of displaced families, the anxiety of children growing up in a world on fire, the disorientation and grief communities face after floods, drought, and wildfires,” the authors of the letter write. “Climate anxiety is no longer a fear of what might happen – it is the emotional response to what is already happening.”
A global struggle for climate truth
The Fossil-Free Health Communications commitment led by GCHA echoes global efforts to chip away at climate misinformation by targeting those who are carrying it out. A 2024 report from Clean Creatives found that more than 500 advertising agencies had more than 1,000 contracts with fossil fuel companies in 2023 and 2024, including messaging giants such as Edelman, Dentsu and FleishmanHillard.
The 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP29, held last November in petroleum-producing Azerbaijan, saw dozens of delegates from PR agencies roam its halls, including many of the same agencies that were singled out by the Clean Creatives list. Clean Creatives celebrated a more positive milestone in 2024, as more than 1,000 PR agencies pledged to divest from fossil fuels.
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A number of jurisdictions have tried to curtail fossil advertising with laws. In 2022, France became the first country to ban fossil fuel ads. In 2022, Sydney, Australia, banned coal, oil and gas advertising; in 2024, The Hague in the Netherlands became the first city to ban advertising for fossil fuels and carbon-intensive industries such as airlines and cruise ships. Amsterdam and Edinburgh have passed similar restrictions, although they are not legally binding.
Doctors in Canada have mounted a similar campaign against fossil fuel advertising. Last winter, former member of Parliament Charlie Angus tabled a private member’s bill to prohibit misleading advertising by the oil and gas industry. It was met with furious backlash and did not receive a hearing in Parliament, however.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has consistently sounded the alarm over the role of PR agencies in stalling more meaningful climate action for years. “Many in the fossil fuel industry have shamelessly greenwashed, even as they have sought to delay climate action – with lobbying, legal threats and massive ad campaigns,” Guterres said in a speech on World Environment Day in 2024. “They have been aided and abetted by advertising and PR companies – mad men fuelling the madness.”
Natalie Alcoba is a Buenos Aires–based journalist and senior editor at Corporate Knights.
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