The world’s largest fossil fuel companies are deceitfully signalling support for renewable energy solutions, while working behind the scenes to slow the global transition away from carbon-based fuels.
That’s according to new Maynooth University research led by Jennie C Stephens, Professor of Climate Justice, done in collaboration with colleagues at Northeastern University in the United States and reported today in the journal Energy, Sustainability and Society.
“We analysed the annual reports of major fossil fuel corporations from 2016-2022 and analysed how they talk about renewables,” said Professor Stephens.
“We found they were all using a subtle, but powerful form of ‘greenwashing’ to justify their continued oil and gas extraction.”
Prof Stephens and her colleagues deployed a rigorous social science methodology which involved manually coding every mention of renewable energy they found in the annual reports and assessing whether those references were positive, negative or neutral.
“We read the reports line by line and developed a detailed codebook so that anyone following our methods would code the same sentences in the same way,” said Prof Stephens.
“This is a standard approach in social science and allowed us to see how renewables are being talked about by these corporations.”
The researchers found that each of the four companies being looked at highlighted a renewable technology, such as wind or solar, in order to present themselves as an active player in the energy transition.
The references to renewables that the researchers located in the annual reports, were frequently linked to continued use of fossil fuels, especially gas, and were accompanied by mentions of negative aspects of renewable energy.
“We see this as a sophisticated form of double-speak,” said Prof Stephens.
“These companies are talking about renewable energy just enough to appear to be part of the transition, but in practice they are using renewables to justify more fossil fuel extraction and to block the transformative changes we need.”
This strategy aligns with a broader decades-long pattern of climate obstructionism by the fossil fuel industry, said Prof Stephens, and is reminiscent of how the tobacco industry downplayed the health risks from smoking.
“This study matters for the public because it exposes how corporate narratives have contributed to the slow place of the transition away from fossil fuels,” said Prof Stephens.
Even as companies claim to be embracing renewables, she said, they are intentionally limiting the transformative potential of the clean energy transition.”
“What we have found is that companies are strategically mentioning renewables, while reinforcing negative perceptions of renewable energy. These companies remain the main obstacle to the energy transition while they subtly try to position themselves as part of it.”
This study of the annual reports of powerful fossil fuel companies provides new insights to understand how such corporations shape the story of the energy transition.
“The findings can inform journalists, policymakers, investors and citizens trying to understand why we are still so dependent on fossil fuels,” said Prof Stephens.
“Current vulnerabilities to the price shocks of fossil fuels are worse today because of the fossil fuel industry’s tactics explored in this study.”
