“We’re seen as one of the bad guys.” That is a quote from an internal document of the oil and gas company BP, written in 2020. Climate change was by then attracting significant public concern and protest, and BP officials were asking themselves how to counter the negative perception they faced.
First revealed by the investigative news outlet Drilled, the quote resurfaces in a report released yesterday by the watchdog group Clean Creatives that analyzes how Big Oil’s public messaging around climate change has evolved in recent years. The news media has always been a principal target of the fossil fuel industry’s PR machinations, making this analysis something all journalists reporting about climate change should know about.
The climate emergency has long posed a vexing PR problem for the fossil fuel industry. Burning oil, gas, and coal is the primary driver of global temperature rise and the heat waves, droughts, storms, and rising seas that result from it. It’s only natural that people threatened by those impacts would resent the companies most responsible for them.
Companies like BP and ExxonMobil have employed various strategies to deflect public anger and the changes in policy it might provoke. For decades, they simply lied. By the 1970s, their own scientists were telling senior management that burning fossil fuels would threaten the survival of civilization. But the industry chose to hide the truth, spending millions of dollars on advertising, phony research, and other forms of propaganda to convince the public, government officials, and the press there was no cause for alarm.
Those efforts continue today, though the content of the propaganda shifts in response to evolving circumstances, as the Clean Creatives report illustrates. The group says that it reviewed 1,859 public-facing messages — ads, social media posts, statements to investors and shareholders, and speeches by and interviews with CEOs — produced by BP, ExxonMobil, Shell, and Chevron from 2020 to 2024. The analysis found that the messaging of these “Big Four” has shifted in remarkably similar ways over those years. For example, soon after Russia invaded Ukraine again in 2022, throwing world energy markets into turmoil, the companies’ previous pledges of striving for net zero by 2050 all but vanished from their public statements. Instead, their messaging shifted to asserting that energy security required using more fossil fuels while still pursuing emissions reductions. By 2024, that messaging had morphed to the assertion that, like it or not, humanity simply can’t do without fossil fuels.
One reason Big Oil has worked so assiduously to manage public opinion is simple enough: Most people understandably don’t want to see global warming ruin the planet. As CCNow’s 89% Project has reported, 80 to 89% of the world’s people want their governments to take stronger climate action. However, these same people think that they’re the minority, so they mostly stay silent. It’s a perverse tribute to the industry’s propaganda, which has many people convinced that climate change is too divisive to even talk about, much less to tackle.
A report by Climate Majority Project, a nonprofit based in the UK, argues that climate change is not the only issue where most people favor radically different approaches than what the status quo is delivering. The report finds that majorities around the world feel threatened by climate chaos, fear societal breakdown, and want less consumerism. But these majorities likewise mistakenly think that they are a minority, so they tend to say, and do, nothing. For example, a “climate concerned business majority” believes that new economic rules are needed to avoid catastrophe, but they don’t lobby for such rules. The result? A “spiral of silence” that blunts the action that most people want, according to the report.
Journalists can play a key role in either reinforcing or disrupting this spiral of silence. During a CCNow Press Briefing this week , Caroline Lucas, a Green Party leader who served for 14 years in the British Parliament, talked about the “paradox” that “the majority only speaks out when they feel powerful enough to act, but that sense of power only comes from hearing others speak.” But more people are now speaking out, Lucas added, and she urged journalists “to think more about how some of these still-hidden, still-unheard voices can be heard.”
From Us
Pitch contest at Perugia. At this year’s International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, CCNow and Clean Energy Wire are hosting an event about freelancing climate stories. During a live pitch clinic, we’ll workshop pitches submitted in advance. The strongest will be considered for publication by The Guardian. We’re only accepting 100 pitches, so apply now!
SEJ bound? Join CCNow and Solutions Journalism Network for a workshop on Wednesday, April 15. For more details, look on the schedule for “Workshop 3 — Mapping The Future of Climate Journalism,” from 1–4pm US Central Time. CCNow will also host a happy hour on Friday, April 17, from 5:45–8pm, at Vintage Bar, one block from the conference venue. Join us!
WATCH: Avoiding the “Spiral of Silence.” In a CCNow Press Briefing this week, Caroline Lucas, former leader of England’s Green Party; Liam Kavanaugh, co-director of the Climate Majority Project; and Preslav Tonkov, senior advisor at Gallup, shared new analysis that shows a large global majority of people want their governments to act on climate.
WATCH: The Iran War and the Climate Emergency. In a recent CCNow Press Briefing, panelists discussed the Iran war and how conflict fuels climate change — and vice versa.
On the Beat
Talking oil prices. Slate’s Nitish Pahwa joined CCNow today to talk about the global oil-price shock, climate change, and the Iran war with our executive director, Mark Hertsgaard. Watch the interview.
Bye bye, broadcast. Matt Laubhan, formerly of Tupelo, Mississippi’s WTVA, is one of a group of meteorologists around the US and Canada who has left their traditional broadcast job to strike out on their own. Laubhan’s new show, Mississippi Live Weather, provides 24/7 local weather coverage on platforms including YouTube and X. By Elizabeth Hewitt for Columbia Journalism Review…
Noteworthy Stories
Solar for the win. Pakistan’s widespread adoption of solar energy in recent years will help inoculate the country against the ongoing global oil-price shock, saving at least $6.3 billion this year, according to analysis by the think tank Renewables First and the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. By Lili Pike and Aaron Clark for Bloomberg…
- Meanwhile, after years of investing heavily in wind and solar energy, Spain is reaping the rewards as oil prices continue to surge.
5-year plan. China has vowed to cut carbon intensity by 17% over the next five years, while continuing to invest in clean-energy industries, including solar and electric vehicles, according to the country’s 15th five-year plan, published this week. The plan does not articulate a timeline for winding down fossil fuel use. By Anika Patel for Carbon Brief…
‘False solutions.’ Pakistan’s most recent climate plan to reduce emissions depends heavily on carbon capture and storage, which the US-based nonprofit the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis calls a “global distraction effort.” By Zaki Abbas for Dawn…
“Water day zero.” Stressed in recent years by climate change–fueled drought and government mismanagement, Iran’s water supplies are now facing another threat: war. Carbon Brief examines when Iran may hit “water day zero” and climate change’s role in the crisis.
“Campaign of retribution.” The nonprofit overseeing the National Center for Atmospheric Research has sued the Trump administration to stop the dismantlement of the Colorado-based climate research center. The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research alleges the administration targeted NCAR in a “campaign of retribution” against the state. By Sam Brasch for Colorado Public Radio…
Kenya floods. At least 66 people have died in Kenya after widespread flooding in the wake of recent extreme rainfall, which is made more likely by climate change. By Joseph Winter and Richard Kagoe for BBC News…
Quote of the Week
“There is one lesson from this [Iran] crisis, and only one in my view, for the long term on energy policy, and that is that we need home-grown, clean power that we control.”
– Ed Miliband, the UK’s Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
Resources & Events
Communicating climate. The UK’s Royal Meteorological Society and Weather Change are hosting a webinar about the social and behavioral science in communicating climate change on World Meteorological Day — that’s Monday, March 23. Learn more and RSVP.
Contaminated sites. The Public Media Journalists Association is hosting a webinar, “Covering Contaminated Sites Under Trump,” on Tuesday, March 31, at 1pm US Eastern Time, to help journalist sharpen their reporting skills in the face of Trump’s proposed cuts to the program responsible for site cleanup. Learn more and RSVP.
Nature-based solutions. Harvard Voices on Climate Change is hosting a webinar, “Measuring Forest-Based Carbon Emission Reductions,” on Wednesday, April 1, at 4:30pm US Eastern Time. Learn more and RSVP.
Fingerprints on winter weather. Climate Central has released new data and graphics showing climate change’s influence on this winter’s warm temperatures. Globally, climate change made every day between December 2025 and February 2026 warmer for more than one in six people.
Jobs, Etc.
Jobs. ProPublica is hiring for a number of positions, including Visuals Editor, Business Reporter, and Deputy Research Editor. New York Focus is hiring an Interim Climate and Environment Reporter (remote in New York State, five-month contract). Bloomberg is hiring a US Audience Editor (New York, N.Y.). Mountain State Spotlight is hiring an Environment and Energy Reporter (Charleston, W.V.). Mongabay is hiring for a Contributing Editor, Asia Pacific (remote). Dialogue Earth is hiring a Mexico and Central America Regional Editor (Mexico, preferred; otherwise, Central America).
Fellowships. NYU Stern School of Business is accepting applications for its Climate Economics Journalism Fellowship; apply by April 20. Sentient is recruiting a Student Editorial Fellow; apply by May 29 (remote).
Internships. Scientific American is hiring a news intern (New York, N.Y.). Planet Detroit is hiring a Detroit Community Engagement Journalism Intern (Detroit, Mich.).
Grant. The Journalismfund Europe is accepting proposals for its Professional Development for Environmental Journalism. The Pulitzer Center is accepting proposals for its Impact Seed Fund to support educational and engagement initiatives in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.