Last Update: 04/05/2026 at 1:25 PM EST
Big Oil Shifts To Fossil Fuel Permanence
Coverage from Northeastern Global News, Euronews.com, and others
Articles
5
Latest Article
04/03
Active Days
35
Executive Summary
Oil majors shifted from climate leadership messaging to fossil fuel permanence, using energy security and balance framing to justify continued expansion
- Clean Creatives analyzed 1,859 BP, Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron communications from 2020 to 2024
- The companies shifted from climate leadership language to fossil fuel permanence and energy security framing
- By 2023 they used both-and messaging, and by 2024 transition language had largely disappeared
- BP cut its oil and gas output reduction target from 40 percent in 2020 to 25 percent in 2024
- Shell sharply increased references to liquefied natural gas in its Energy Transition Strategy reports
- The report says advertising and PR were used to maintain a social license to operate and delay scrutiny
- Attribution science links most historical industrial CO2 and much ocean acidification to a small group of producers
Quick Facts
- What: Shifted messaging from climate leadership to permanence
- Where: In global advertising media and policy communications
- Why: To preserve social license and support continued fossil fuel expansion
- Who: BP Shell ExxonMobil Chevron and fossil fuel lobby groups
- When: Between 2020 and 2024 with shifts after 2022
Coverage Timeline: 35 Days
Featured Article
Clean Creatives reports that BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, and Chevron messaging shifted from climate leadership to fossil fuel permanence across 2020-2024 communications.
Additional Articles
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Northeastern University researchers find BP, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies pair renewables messaging with natural-gas framing in tweets and annual reports.
Clean Creatives published Toxic Accounts analyzing 1,800-plus BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, and Chevron communications from 2020-2024, finding shifts from climate pledges to fossil fuel indispensability framing.
Fossil fuel lobby groups influence climate policy and public discourse globally, while attribution science links emissions to a small set of producers.
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Clean Creatives analyzes 1,800 BP, Shell, Exxon, and Chevron ads and posts showing an energy-security framing of fossil fuel expansion from 2020-2024.