{"id":21507,"date":"2022-02-20T12:46:47","date_gmt":"2022-02-20T20:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=21507"},"modified":"2022-02-20T12:46:48","modified_gmt":"2022-02-20T20:46:48","slug":"study-exposes-climate-claims-by-big-oil-as-corporate-propaganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/02\/20\/study-exposes-climate-claims-by-big-oil-as-corporate-propaganda\/","title":{"rendered":"Study Exposes Climate Claims by Big Oil as Corporate Propaganda"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Greenwashing<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Demonstrators march down Hope Street in Glasgow, Scotland, on November 3, 2021 for a march against greenwashing organized by Extinction Rebellion during COP26. (Photo: Jane Barlow\/PA Images via Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This empirical work by independent scholars,” said one environmental scholar, proves what climate activists have argued all along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

JESSICA CORBETT<\/a> February 17, 2022 (commondreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While continuing to fuel<\/strong> the climate emergency over the past decade, oil and gas majors relied on misleading messages rather than actually taking action to transition to clean energy, according to<\/a> research released Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This study confirms what observers have always known about Big Oil’s climate pledges: They’re all hot air.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The peer-reviewed study, published in the journal PLOS One<\/em>, focused on two American companies, Chevron and ExxonMobil, as well as two European ones, BP and Shell\u2014the four majors also at the center of an ongoing investigation by a U.S. House panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three researchers at a pair of Japanese universities reviewed data from 2009 to 2020, examining the firms’ keyword use in annual reports; business strategies; and production, expenditures, and earnings for fossil fuels along with investments in clean energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We found a strong increase in discourse related to ‘climate,’ ‘low-carbon,’ and ‘transition,’ especially by BP and Shell,” the paper states. “Similarly, we observed increasing tendencies toward strategies related to decarbonization and clean energy. But these are dominated by pledges rather than concrete actions.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Moreover, the financial analysis reveals a continuing business model dependence on fossil fuels along with insignificant and opaque spending on clean energy,” the study adds. “We thus conclude that the transition to clean energy business models is not occurring, since the magnitude of investments and actions does not match discourse.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The document emphasizes that “until actions and investment behavior are brought into alignment with discourse, accusations of greenwashing appear well-founded.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n