Environmental campaigners have asked Australia’s consumer watchdog to investigate an oil and gas industry public relations campaign that critics claim is misleading the public on the climate effects of fossil fuel.
The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (Appea) last month dropped a claim in its “Future of Gas” advertising campaign that gas was “50% cleaner” than coal.
Ad Standards said the claim was not specific enough and had not been substantiated, finding Appea had breached all three of its codes covering environmental claims.
Appea launched the campaign in June to highlight “the importance of natural gas to the nation”.
Now lawyers representing environmental campaigners Lock the Gate and climate advocacy group Comms Declare have asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to investigate the campaign.
“We hope this is a turning point in preventing greenwashing by coal, oil, and gas companies,” said Belinda Noble of Comms Declare.
“Gas is mainly methane, which heats the atmosphere 84 times more than carbon dioxide over 20 years.
“Advertising gas as being somehow ‘clean’ or ‘green’ is not only inaccurate – it is also immoral when global warming is causing record temperatures, death and destruction around the globe.”
In the letter to the ACCC, lawyers at the Environmental Defenders Office, representing the complainants, accuse the campaign of potentially misleading the public on several counts.
The lawyers write that in some cases the actual climate impact of gas is much worse than the comparison of 50% cleaner than coal.
The lawyers also write that comparing the greenhouse gas emissions of gas to coal was “potentially misleading” because it ignored a more relevant comparison to renewable energy.
“Failing to disclose this information may lead the reader to the false conclusion that gas is the only energy source that releases less [greenhouse gases] than coal, when in fact renewable energy sources release almost zero [greenhouse gases] in the production of energy,” the complaint says.
The letter also says that while the campaign claims gas generates about 20% of the electricity used by Australians, for the majority of people served by the National Electricity Market gas only generated about 6% of power.
“Greenwashing is dangerous because it delays action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and undermines competition and consumer trust in green or renewable products,” said Kirsty Ruddock, managing lawyer at the EDO.
“Appea’s statements are designed to make the public think gas is good for the environment, when in fact it is driving dangerous climate change.
“It is clearly in the public interest to ensure big polluters and their peak bodies, such as Appea, are held to account for their allegedly misleading or deceptive conduct.”
Last month an Ad Standards panel found Appea’s campaign had breached its codes covering environmental claims.
The panel investigated a complaint about Appea’s claim in its campaign that gas was “50% cleaner” than coal.
The panel ruled the claim was “misleading, as the claim is not specific and does not make clear to the target audience the basis for comparison”.
Appea pointed the panel to statements from the International Energy Agency and the former Australian chief scientist Alan Finkel to back up its claim.
But a majority of the panel did not consider those sources to be sufficiently detailed to allow the claim to be properly evaluated.
Appea has already removed the claim from its campaign. Statements that said gas was “around 50% cleaner than coal for generating electricity” now read “gas produced fewer emissions than coal when used to generate electricity”. Videos containing the claim have also been taken out of circulation.
Experts have previously told the Guardian that in Australia’s main electricity grid gas has 61% of the emissions of coal, not 50%. They also point out that coal-fired power is not being replaced by gas in Australia, but by renewables such as solar and wind.
The Guardian asked Appea to respond to the concerns raised in the ACCC complaint and to the findings of the AdStandards panel.
Samantha McCulloch, Appea’s chief executive, said she believed the advertising was “clear and factual” and the association did not agree with the panel’s finding.
“The fact that gas produces around 50% less carbon dioxide emissions than coal when used for power generation is widely established and recognised by leading authorities including the International Energy Agency (IEA), the US Government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), the US Department of Energy and Australia’s former chief scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, in his review of the National Electricity Market.
“However, out of respect for the decision and the process, APPEA promptly updated some campaign material when the decision was brought to our attention to take into account the determination.”
