Badvert of the Month: Aramco
Date/Company: 2020/ Aramco
Leader in sustainability or greenwashing?
No it wasn’t an April’s fools joke but a real advert by Aramco - the largest corporate polluter on earth - claiming to be pioneering sustainability while its entire business model is based upon continued extraction and burning of fossil fuels. Aramco don’t seem to mind that they are blatantly lying to the public. If there is anything remotely pertinent about this advert is the orange/red backdrop it stands on - perhaps representing some sort of burning hell like the one it is driving us into.
The ad reads: “We adopted sustainability practices such as zero routine flaring decades before they became industry standards. As a result, a recent study of over 100 oil fields in 20 countries showed that our crude oil has the lowest carbon intensity among large producers proving our commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and powering a more sustainable future.”
First, let’s uncover all this fuss about routine flaring. So-called ‘routine or production flaring’ is the act of disposing - by burning it - large unwanted amounts of associated petroleum gas during crude oil extraction. As one can imagine, this is particularly damaging to the environment as it releases enormous amounts of carbon emissions into the atmosphere - more than 300 million tons of CO2 per year. In July 2019, Aramco joined, alongside 44 other companies, the World Bank-led initiative to stop routing flaring by 2030. It’s good to hear that Aramco has committed - apparently before many others - to stop this highly polluting practice. Does this turn it into some kind of “sustainable champion”? Obviously not. This is just one of the company’s many strategies to distract from the fact that its whole business model is in itself entirely unsustainable.
Climate... what?!
The second claim it makes is surely the most outrageous one. According to a scientific study - entirely made up it seems - its fossil fuels would emit lower emissions than other industries. This proves the lengths the company will go to keep with business as usual. Aramco here doesn’t even attempt to show that it is diverting its operations towards renewable energy. Instead it goes as far as pretending that “its fossil fuels are greener than others” while planning to remain the world’s largest crude oil company by production volume (based upon its 2020 annual report).
However, the public wasn’t so pleased - or quite frankly, they were outraged - by this greenwashing advert. Maybe Aramco felt it wasn’t such a good idea after all to be so blatantly dishonest and therefore decided to remove the ad following 61 complaints sent to the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) over its misleading claims.
But this hasn’t prevented the company from pursuing greenwashing advertising altogether. No, it appears the business of false marketing is working to their advantage considering this isn’t their only example of shockingly misleading advertising. If you’re feeling brave enough for more greenwashing - you can head over to ClientEarth’s investigation into Aramco and others’ outrageous tactics (which we cover in our blog here).
A Guardian investigation into the 20 biggest polluting companies placed Aramco as the number one contributor to climate change since 1965. Despite the IPCC warning that we have less than 10 years to avert global catastrophic climate change, Aramco is still planning to play a major role in global fossil fuel production between now and 2030. According to Oil Change International, this will contribute to an additional 27bn tonnes of CO2 or 4.7% of the world’s equivalent carbon budget to keep average temperatures within 1.5°C global warming.
Company background: Aramco
Aramco, formerly Arabian American Oil, is a State-owned international oil and gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Founded in 1933, it ranks among the largest companies in the world by revenue and, according to Bloomberg News, in 2019 it was the most profitable company in the world. Saudi Aramco owns the world's second-largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 270 billion barrels, and produces the largest amount of oil per day. The company’s activities are led by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources together with the Supreme Council for Petroleum and Minerals. The Saudi Arabian Government - owner of Aramco - has been condemned by Amnesty International and other human rights groups for violating several international human rights principles. The Saudi-led war coalition in Yemen formed in 2015 - supported by the likes of the United States and the United Kingdom - has been accused of committing war crimes against humanity in a deadly conflict which will have costed the lives of 233’000 people in 2020.