‘You can’t live without us’: Have fossil fuel giants gone back on their green promises?

Oil majors have been accused of “quietly abandoning” their climate pledges in an attempt to justify the continued use of polluting fossil fuels.

New research from Clean Creatives, a project for climate-conscious PR and advert professionals, has tracked how Big Oil has been “systemically” changing its narrative over the last four years – despite repeated warnings around the planet’s warming.

The report, titled Toxic Accounts: From Greenwashing to Gaslighting, analyses more than 1,800 pieces of campaign material from fossil fuel giants BP, Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron between 2020 and 2024.

This includes paid advertisements across social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram – as well as TV ads, library archives, press releases, investor communications and executive speeches.

Is Big Oil guilty of ‘climate gaslighting’?

The report found that campaigns at the beginning of the analysis emphasised climate targets and clean energy transition pledges, frequently positioning themselves as transition partners.

However, by 2023, messaging “increasingly framed” oil and gas as “permanent, indispensable and essential to economic stability and national security”.

In 2020, BP moved from its net zero pledge and ‘greening companies’ rhetoric to campaigns that Clean Creatives says defend its continued expansion of gas and oil, while scaling back its renewable ambitions.

Chevron also pivoted from its ‘Human Energy’ positioning to “nationalist messaging” linking domestic fossil fuel production to economic and national security, the report found.

Researchers warn that despite differences in tone, all of the oil majors in the analysis followed similar narrative shifts, moving from “part of the solution” to “you can’t live without us” messaging.

The report found that campaigns increasingly promoted liquefied natural gas (LNG), carbon capture and storage (CCS), blue hydrogen, biofuels and renewable diesel as climate solutions, despite evidence that these technologies remain fossil fuel-derived or unproven at scale.

“The speed at which companies shifted to energy-security messaging correlated with their financial performance,” the report states.

“Chevron and ExxonMobil were quick to shift their messaging toward fossil fuel dominance, and as a result, led the market.”

The report also found that Shell, which was accused of downplaying fossil fuels’ climate impact last year, transitioned from presenting itself as a net zero leader to emphasising LNG as a longer-term growth market.

Keeping fossil fuels ‘profitable’ amid changing attitudes

“Greenwashing has taken on a new form,” says Nayantara Dutta, head of research at Clean Creatives and lead author of the report.

“Instead of making false claims, oil majors are promoting false solutions like CCS and natural gas, even though they are derived from and create long-term dependence on fossil fuels.”

Dutta argues that oil companies are crafting a narrative that keeps them “profitable and in power” in the face of growing opposition.

Transitioning away from fossil fuels became a flashpoint discussion at last year’s UN COP30 summit in Belém, despite not being an official agenda item.

More than 90 countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, backed the idea of a roadmap to allow each nation to set its own targets to move towards green energy.

Despite the growing support for this idea, all mentions of fossil fuels were scrubbed from the final deal in the last hours of the summit. It means hope for a fossil fuel-free future now lies outside the UN’s remit.

A report by Carbon Majors recently found that 17 of the top 20 emitters in 2024 were firms controlled by nations that went on to block the COP30 roadmap. This includes Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, India, Russia and China.

Big Oil and the war on Iran

“The transition from greenwashing to advocacy of fossil fuel energy dominance is the latest rhetorical twist in the manipulation of the public to accept greenhouse gas emissions as just part of doing business,” says Robert Brulle, an environmental sociologist at Brown University.

“Meanwhile, the war in the Middle East shows the folly of the idea that fossil fuels provide ‘energy security’.”

Multiple experts have used the war on Iran to highlight the urgent need for a clean energy transition, as oil and gas prices continue to soar.

Non-profit 350.org recently urged G7 nations to implement a windfall tax on fossil fuel giants that it says are “cashing in” on escalating conflict in the Middle East.

While the Iran war has also bolstered calls for the UK to open up licences to drill in the North Sea, an analysis from the University of Oxford found that focusing on renewable energy is far more likely to decrease household energy bills.

“What we’re seeing is climate disinformation evolving in real time,” says Dana Schran of the Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) coalition.

“Instead of denying the crisis, oil majors like BP and Shell are reshaping the story to make fossil fuel expansion seem necessary and responsible. It’s a sophisticated effort to protect political influence and profits, even as climate impacts intensify.”