Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • Strategic autonomy
    • War in Ukraine
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

‘Gaslighting’ Europe on fossil fuels

Faye Holder 22nd December 2022

Documents from the International Gas Union have revealed the strategy of disinformation pursued by the powerful lobby.

IGU,documents,International Gas Union,lobby,lobbying,sustainable finance taxonomy,green gas,EU,COP
Devastation in Karachi—this year’s extreme weather events highlighted the urgency of climate action (Asianet-Pakistan/shutterstock.com)

Rarely does the public get the chance to see the fossil-fuel industry’s lobbying strategy laid out so clearly and in such detail. Such corporate information is normally kept under lock and key—while citizens are left wrestling with the consequences of repeatedly diluted climate policies and continued reliance on fossil fuels.

That’s what makes strategy documents which were posted on the International Gas Union’s (IGU) website so unique. Previously unseen, they detail the advocacy, communications and outreach strategies of a group which boasts more than 150 members and claims to represent over 90 per cent of the global gas industry. Unsurprisingly, they have now been removed. 

As part of InfluenceMap’s work in tracking climate-policy lobbying by the fossil-fuels sector, we have analysed dozens of these documents, covering several years to late 2021. They provide an insight into the highly organised and co-ordinated nature of the global gas industry. They also supply the industry’s global disinformation playbook—in its own words.

‘Existential’ threat … to value chain

This year, the world has witnessed catastrophic weather events devastate Pakistan and Nigeria, while Europe experienced the hottest summer on record (again). These episodes were further proof of the ‘code red’ signal to humanity from accelerating climate change. 


Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content. We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Sign up here

In developing its 2021 position statement, the IGU itself discussed the ‘potentially existential’ threat of climate change—but with a crucial difference. For the organisation, the threat of climate change was not to humanity but to the ‘global natural gas value chain’. This ‘understanding’ of the problem also characterised its response: rather than look at how fossil gas contributed to climate change, the IGU argued that it must instead find a ‘positive message to defend and enhance the role of gas’. 

So how best to wrestle back the reputation of gas, from the ‘fossil phobic’ attitudes identified by the IGU? Given that gas contributes to climate change through the greenhouse-gas emissions generated when burnt or leaked while transported, the association posited that fossil gas had to be redefined and made ‘distinct from other fossil fuels’.

To ‘green’ gas, the IGU set out to develop a new category of gases, where fossil gas would be housed alongside renewable, low-carbon and decarbonised gases. A definition of ‘renewable gases’ appears in the appendix to one of the documents, suggesting that it includes biogas, biomethane, grey hydrogen (produced from fossil gas), blue hydrogen (produced from fossil gas with carbon capture and storage) and green hydrogen.

Putting aside the IGU’s misuse of the word ‘renewable’, this nebulous grouping of gases appears to be intentionally vague and a lobbying tool to promote variations of fossil gas more than anything else. As the IGU states, this new, wide definition of gas provides a ‘broader platform to engage’ and—critically—‘deepens [the] rationale for infrastructure investment for government and development banks’. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and International Energy Agency have specifically warned against any such new investment, if climate goals are to be met.

The IGU writes that this effort to ‘green’ gas began in 2020. And there is certainly lobbying evidence from itself and its members to prove it, including on one of the European Union’s most debated policies—the sustainable-finance taxonomy. 

Sustained attack

The taxonomy was intended to provide the financial community with a list of environmentally sustainable activities, consistent with the bloc’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. The European Commission’s technical expert group advised an upper threshold for energy generation of 100 grams of CO2 equivalent per kilowatt hour, which effectively excluded unabated fossil gas from the ‘sustainable’ list. What followed was a sustained attack from the gas industry and the first real test case for the lobby group’s ‘green’ gas strategy.

For instance, in October 2020, 57 gas-industry groups and companies, including the IGU, Shell, BP and TotalEnergies, sent a letter to the commission arguing for the inclusion of fossil gas in the taxonomy. In what now sounds familiar language, it said fossil gas could help meet climate-neutrality goals with the ‘scaling up of all decarbonisation options … including natural, renewable, and decarbonised gases’.

Rather than listen to its own expert group, the commission sided with the gas industry. It has since been sued by a group of pro-climate nongovernmental organisations (and Austria), on grounds of breaking its own obligations under the Paris Agreement and contravening the European Climate Law mandating at least 55 per cent reduction in net emissions by 2030 and ‘net zero’ by 2050.


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

John Cook, an academic specialising in climate misinformation, has found that explaining misinformation or the tactics used can be a powerful tool for inoculation against it. Perhaps a different path might have been taken by the commission if the IGU strategy documents had been available to it at the time. 

Instead, the commission’s response set a precedent for other EU climate policies facing the same gas-industry attacks: the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the Energy Efficiency Directive and the Methane Regulations for the Energy Sector. All have recently been weakened during the policy process.

Fossil-fuel lobbyists

But it’s not only in the EU that the gas industry is having success with this ‘green’ gas strategy. COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh was attended by 636 fossil-fuel lobbyists, raising serious questions about the credibility of COP as a forum to discuss climate action. This year, ‘low-emissions’ energy sources were included in the final declaration at the last minute, with many observers noting the similarity to the language used by the gas industry. As a result, many participants have expressed low hopes for next year’s petro-state-hosted COP in Dubai.

Alongside COP, the IGU listed the World Bank, several development banks, the G20, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the UN Environment Programme and policy-makers in the United States and China as targets for its advocacy. It has developed messaging strategies for ‘sustainable development’ gas using the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to promote gas as a solution for energy poverty and air pollution.

The IPCC has identified ‘incumbent’ fossil-fuel interests ‘exerting political influence’ over policy-making as a key reason for the lack of progress on climate policies globally. What makes these documents noteworthy is the new insight into the scale and co-ordination of this effort to ‘gaslight’ decision-makers into backing gas, and the nuanced disinformation strategies deployed to do so. 

Given the policy wins already achieved by the industry globally, it would appear the IGU’s strategy is working. But maybe these documents will help policy-makers see behind the ‘green’-tinged smokescreen of its lobbying tactics—and get on with the task of taking climate action.

Faye Holder
Faye Holder

Faye Holder is programme manager for oil and gas, digital media and advertising at InfluenceMap, a think tank which provides data and analysis on how business and finance are affecting the climate crisis. She has a masters in environment, politics and globalisation from King's College London.

You are here: Home / Ecology / ‘Gaslighting’ Europe on fossil fuels

Most Popular Posts

European civil war,iron curtain,NATO,Ukraine,Gorbachev The new European civil warGuido Montani
Visentini,ITUC,Qatar,Fight Impunity,50,000 Visentini, ‘Fight Impunity’, the ITUC and QatarFrank Hoffer
Russian soldiers' mothers,war,Ukraine The Ukraine war and Russian soldiers’ mothersJennifer Mathers and Natasha Danilova
IGU,documents,International Gas Union,lobby,lobbying,sustainable finance taxonomy,green gas,EU,COP ‘Gaslighting’ Europe on fossil fuelsFaye Holder
Schengen,Fortress Europe,Romania,Bulgaria Romania and Bulgaria stuck in EU’s second tierMagdalena Ulceluse

Most Recent Posts

European civil war,iron curtain,NATO,Ukraine,Gorbachev The new European civil warGuido Montani
artists,cultural workers Europe’s stars must shine for artists and creativesIsabelle Van de Gejuchte
transition,deindustrialisation,degradation,environment Europe’s industry and the ecological transitionCharlotte Bez and Lorenzo Feltrin
central and eastern Europe,unions,recognition Social dialogue in central and eastern EuropeMartin Myant
women soldiers,Ukraine Ukraine war: attitudes changing to women soldiersJennifer Mathers and Anna Kvit

Other Social Europe Publications

front cover scaled Towards a social-democratic century?
Cover e1655225066994 National recovery and resilience plans
Untitled design The transatlantic relationship
Women Corona e1631700896969 500 Women and the coronavirus crisis
sere12 1 RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

The macroeconomic effects of re-applying the EU fiscal rules

Against the background of the European Commission's reform plans for the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), this policy brief uses the macroeconometric multi-country model NiGEM to simulate the macroeconomic implications of the most relevant reform options from 2024 onwards. Next to a return to the existing and unreformed rules, the most prominent options include an expenditure rule linked to a debt anchor.

Our results for the euro area and its four biggest economies—France, Italy, Germany and Spain—indicate that returning to the rules of the SGP would lead to severe cuts in public spending, particularly if the SGP rules were interpreted as in the past. A more flexible interpretation would only somewhat ease the fiscal-adjustment burden. An expenditure rule along the lines of the European Fiscal Board would, however, not necessarily alleviate that burden in and of itself.

Our simulations show great care must be taken to specify the expenditure rule, such that fiscal consolidation is achieved in a growth-friendly way. Raising the debt ceiling to 90 per cent of gross domestic product and applying less demanding fiscal adjustments, as proposed by the IMK, would go a long way.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ILO advertisement

Global Wage Report 2022-23: The impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power

The International Labour Organization's Global Wage Report is a key reference on wages and wage inequality for the academic community and policy-makers around the world.

This eighth edition of the report, The Impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power, examines the evolution of real wages, giving a unique picture of wage trends globally and by region. The report includes evidence on how wages have evolved through the COVID-19 crisis as well as how the current inflationary context is biting into real wage growth in most regions of the world. The report shows that for the first time in the 21st century real wage growth has fallen to negative values while, at the same time, the gap between real productivity growth and real wage growth continues to widen.

The report analysis the evolution of the real total wage bill from 2019 to 2022 to show how its different components—employment, nominal wages and inflation—have changed during the COVID-19 crisis and, more recently, during the cost-of-living crisis. The decomposition of the total wage bill, and its evolution, is shown for all wage employees and distinguishes between women and men. The report also looks at changes in wage inequality and the gender pay gap to reveal how COVID-19 may have contributed to increasing income inequality in different regions of the world. Together, the empirical evidence in the report becomes the backbone of a policy discussion that could play a key role in a human-centred recovery from the different ongoing crises.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ETUI advertisement

Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2022

Since 2000, the annual Bilan social volume has been analysing the state of play of social policy in the European Union during the preceding year, the better to forecast developments in the new one. Co-produced by the European Social Observatory (OSE) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), the new edition is no exception. In the context of multiple crises, the authors find that social policies gained in ambition in 2022. At the same time, the new EU economic framework, expected for 2023, should be made compatible with achieving the EU’s social and ‘green’ objectives. Finally, they raise the question whether the EU Social Imbalances Procedure and Open Strategic Autonomy paradigm could provide windows of opportunity to sustain the EU’s social ambition in the long run.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Eurofound webinar: Making telework work for everyone

Since 2020 more European workers and managers have enjoyed greater flexibility and autonomy in work and are reporting their preference for hybrid working. Also driven by technological developments and structural changes in employment, organisations are now integrating telework more permanently into their workplace.

To reflect on these shifts, on 6 December Eurofound researchers Oscar Vargas and John Hurley explored the challenges and opportunities of the surge in telework, as well as the overall growth of telework and teleworkable jobs in the EU and what this means for workers, managers, companies and policymakers.


WATCH THE WEBINAR HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Discover the new FEPS Progressive Yearbook and what 2023 has in store for us!

The Progressive Yearbook focuses on transversal European issues that have left a mark on 2022, delivering insightful future-oriented analysis for the new year. It counts on renowned authors' contributions, including academics, politicians and analysts. This fourth edition is published in a time of war and, therefore, it mostly looks at the conflict itself, the actors involved and the implications for Europe.


DOWNLOAD HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us

RSS Feed

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube