Fossil fuel lobbyist tactics: a spotter's guide

The guide identifies evolving strategies used by fossil fuel lobbyists to disguise their influence, specifically highlighting the use of carbon capture and storage, blue hydrogen, and biomass as deceptive tools to prolong fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure use.

• Fossil fuel lobbyists employ camouflage by presenting themselves as clean energy businesses, citizens groups, political advisors, or think tanks to maintain influence.
• There is a significant presence of fossil fuel lobbyists at international climate summits; Global Witness identified nearly 2,500 such individuals at COP28 in 2023.
• Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is characterized as a deceptive tactic; despite $83 billion in investment, 80% of global projects have failed, and the 41 operational projects capture only 0.1% of annual global emissions.
• The promotion of 'blue' hydrogen for home heating is viewed as a strategy to preserve existing polluting gas networks, as producing genuine 'green' hydrogen for UK home heating would require 13 to 24 times the energy of all current offshore wind farms.
• The use of biomass is presented as a deceptive 'renewable' claim, as burning wood for electricity can result in higher CO2 emissions than burning coal and damages forests.

APA

Global Witness (n.d.). Fossil fuel lobbyist tactics: a spotter's guide. https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-fuels/fossil-fuel-lobbyist-tactics-a-spotters-guide/

Chicago

Global Witness. Fossil fuel lobbyist tactics: a spotter's guide. n.d. https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-fuels/fossil-fuel-lobbyist-tactics-a-spotters-guide/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Global Witness |title=Fossil fuel lobbyist tactics: a spotter's guide |url=https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-fuels/fossil-fuel-lobbyist-tactics-a-spotters-guide/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{globalwitnessndfossil, author = {{Global Witness}}, title = {{Fossil fuel lobbyist tactics: a spotter's guide}}, institution = {Global Witness}, url = {https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-fuels/fossil-fuel-lobbyist-tactics-a-spotters-guide/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }