How to spot fossil fuel greenwashing

The document outlines how fossil fuel companies use misleading advertising to appear more sustainable than they are. It specifically critiques claims regarding the sustainability of natural gas, the viability of carbon capture and storage (CCS), the effectiveness of carbon offsets and nature-based solutions, and the carbon neutrality of wood biomass energy.

• Fossil fuel companies often market natural gas as a 'clean' or sustainable energy source, despite it being carbon intensive and producing significantly more emissions than renewables. On a full lifecycle basis, gas electricity generation produces more than 10 times the emissions of solar and more than 40 times those of wind power. Additionally, methane leaks during extraction and transport can make the climate impact of gas worse than coal.
• Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is presented as a solution to maintain oil and gas projects, but it has failed to scale up and currently accounts for only about 0.1% of global fossil fuel emissions. The technology cannot capture all emissions and does not address upstream methane emissions, which may actually increase due to the energy required to run CCS.
• Companies use vague references to 'nature-based solutions' and carbon offsets to avoid near-term reductions in fossil fuel production. These schemes may involve monoculture tree plantations that harm biodiversity and communities, or questionable claims that corporate credits are the only way to prevent deforestation.
• Wood biomass energy is often labeled as 'renewable' or 'carbon-neutral' under EU and UK law due to a controversial carbon accounting rule that counts emissions as 'zero'. In reality, burning wood biomass can produce more CO2 than fossil fuels and is linked to deforestation.

APA

ClientEarth (2021). How to spot fossil fuel greenwashing. https://www.clientearth.org/latest/news/how-to-spot-fossil-fuel-greenwashing/

Chicago

ClientEarth. How to spot fossil fuel greenwashing. 2021. https://www.clientearth.org/latest/news/how-to-spot-fossil-fuel-greenwashing/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=How to spot fossil fuel greenwashing |date=28 April 2021 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/latest/news/how-to-spot-fossil-fuel-greenwashing/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearth2021how, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{How to spot fossil fuel greenwashing}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2021}, month = apr, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/latest/news/how-to-spot-fossil-fuel-greenwashing/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }