HOW WORKING FOR FOSSIL FUEL CLIENTS BLOCKS CLIMATE ACTION

The report examines the role of the advertising and PR industry in supporting fossil fuel companies, arguing that these agencies facilitate greenwashing and disinformation. It highlights a growing movement of professionals rejecting such work and documents the contradiction between the sustainability pledges of major agency holding companies and their continued representation of high-polluting clients. The document provides a list of 90 agencies working for the fossil fuel industry and presents case studies of misleading campaigns in Australia, the United States, and Europe.

• A growing number of creative professionals and regulators are challenging the ethics of agencies that support major climate polluters, with a report from Edelman indicating that 60% of employees would leave a company performing 'fundamentally immoral' work.
• Several governments and cities have implemented bans on fossil fuel advertising, including the city of Amsterdam, the nation of France, and the city of Seattle, which banned such ads on public transportation.
• Major oil companies continue to prioritize fossil fuel development over climate commitments; in 2019, they spent over 99% of capital expenditures on oil and gas projects, while Shell disclosed in February 2021 that its operating plans and budgets did not reflect its Net-Zero Emissions target.
• Sustainability pledges from major advertising holding companies are insufficient because they focus on operational emissions while ignoring the carbon impact of their clients. For example, WPP's net zero plan accounts for 5.4 mt of carbon reductions annually by 2025, but its fossil fuel clients have a carbon impact 423 times larger than WPP's own operations.
• In Australia, the firm Crosby Textor (now CT Group) managed 'Project Cesar' for Glencore, a multi-million dollar operation that used false claims to promote coal and demonize clean energy advocates through pages like 'Energy Australia'.
• In the United States, ExxonMobil used the 'Exxchange' platform and Facebook ads to oppose Biden Administration climate policies; evidence suggests PR firm Edelman had direct control over the site until at least May 2021, despite not disclosing the work.
• In Europe, FTI Consulting is identified as a key coordinator for the Hydrogen Europe and Hydrogen Council coalitions, which promote 'blue hydrogen' (fossil fuel sourced) as a transition tool despite scientific warnings that it can be more polluting than burning natural gas directly.

APA

Clean Creatives (2021). HOW WORKING FOR FOSSIL FUEL CLIENTS BLOCKS CLIMATE ACTION. https://cleancreatives.org/learn-2021

Chicago

Clean Creatives. HOW WORKING FOR FOSSIL FUEL CLIENTS BLOCKS CLIMATE ACTION. 2021. https://cleancreatives.org/learn-2021.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Clean Creatives |title=HOW WORKING FOR FOSSIL FUEL CLIENTS BLOCKS CLIMATE ACTION |date=2021 |url=https://cleancreatives.org/learn-2021 |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{cleancreatives2021how, author = {{Clean Creatives}}, title = {{HOW WORKING FOR FOSSIL FUEL CLIENTS BLOCKS CLIMATE ACTION}}, institution = {Clean Creatives}, year = {2021}, url = {https://cleancreatives.org/learn-2021}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }