This article was published by The Energy Mix on May 28, 2024.
By Christopher Bonasia
A self-styled grassroot group that has received significant fossil fuel industry funding is continuing to run ads claiming that liquefied natural gas (LNG) “will reduce global emissions,” despite a watchdog council’s ruling in January that the ads amount to greenwashing.
The ruling by Ad Standards Canada, an industry self-regulatory body that evaluates ads and ensures compliance with the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards, was shared anonymously with the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) after the doctors launched a campaign to ban fossil fuel advertising in 2022. Canadian health organizations like CAPE have been advocating for the tobacco-style ban on fossil fuel advertising to protect public health, asserting that fossil fuel companies’ representation of their industry’s harms mirrors the misleading tactics previously used by tobacco companies.
“These ads are textbook cases of greenwashing, right down to the colour of the ads,” said CAPE President and Vancouver family physician Dr. Melissa Lem.
Tara Marsden/Naxginkw, Wilp Sustainability Director for the Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs, said the need to combat the disinformation sown by such ad campaigns is made ever more urgent by wildfires that have displaced thousands of people from their homes already this year.
“The Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs are grateful for the growing voices demanding truth and accountability in Canadian fossil fuel ads,” Marsden/Naxginkw said. “These misleading campaigns not only threaten climate action but also pose serious risks to public health and the environment.”
Canada Action describes itself as a grassroots organization that “combats misinformation” and campaigns on behalf of Canada’s natural resource industries—namely, oil, mining, natural gas, forestry, and renewables. Previous reporting by The Narwhal has shown “deep ties” to the federal Conservative Party and the oil and gas industry, and the organization has received funding from oil and gas companies.
Canada Action is responsible for a campaign that included advertisements stating that “B.C. LNG WILL REDUCE GLOBAL EMISSIONS,” with the lettering superimposed on a green background. The claim appeared in a transit ad and a newspaper version, which also included sub-texts.
Following complaints, the LNG ads were reviewed by Ad Standards, which reached a unanimous decision about Canada Action’s messaging on January 30, 2024. The council found several infractions that violated the Code’s clauses 1 and 8, which deal with accuracy and clarity and with professional or scientific claims.
In its decision, Ad Standards determined that Canada Action did not provide sufficient evidence to support its claim that B.C. LNG will reduce global emissions. The evidence the organization supplied to Ad Standards—and notably, not via the ad itself—indicated the claim is true “if only taking into consideration the off setting [sic] of transitioning from coal to gas.”
The claim was therefore found to have “distorted the true meaning of statements made by professionals or scientific authorities,” “promised a verified result without competent and reliable evidence” and created an “overall misleading impression… that B.C. LNG is good for the environment, amounting to greenwashing.”
Members of the council also raised concerns about the ad’s bright green background “that was used to emphasize an environmental benefit that liquefied natural gas does not truly have.”
Though the ruling was issued months ago, the ads have continued to appear on billboards, radio, public transit, and in major newspapers, CAPE says.
Ad Standards does not have regulatory power to take punitive actions, but can contact advertisers with requests to comply or make public declarations that the advertiser has breached the code. Ad Standards can also notify the Competition Bureau of an advertiser’s infractions and failure to comply with the council’s decision. The Bureau has been reviewing a separate CAPE complaint against the gas industry since October, 2022.
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