The City of New York has sued oil companies ExxonMobil, Shell and BP, as well as the American Petroleum Institute lobbying group, of misleading advertising and fraudulent business practices. The corporations would systematically hide their role in climate pollution through PR campaigns, announced Mayor Bill de Blasio today (local time).
The companies were among the biggest polluters of the environment, but would advertise their products as “greener” and “cleaner”, complained Lorelei Salas from the department for consumer and worker protection. The oil companies should not be allowed to profit from this hoax. The city demands that the allegedly illegal “greenwashing” be banned and that the companies pay fines.
“Unsteady”
The head of the legal department of the American Petroleum Institute, Paul Afonso, described the lawsuit in the US media as “unfounded”. An Exxon spokesman referred to an earlier New York lawsuit over alleged climate change false statements, in which the oil company was acquitted in 2019. Such lawsuits would do nothing useful to solve environmental problems, said the spokesman. No comments were received from BP and Shell.
Environmental protection groups have long been demanding stricter climate targets from companies in the industry. Exxon, for example, said it did so at the end of 2020 and sees itself in line with the Paris climate agreement. However, the targets relate to emission intensity, which is not about an absolute reduction in greenhouse gases. Thus, the emission of environmentally harmful emissions could initially continue to increase with increasing oil production in the future.
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