The Pathways Alliance spent millions of dollars misleading the public with ads about “greening” its fossil fuel production. Pathways Alliance is a consortium of six of the biggest tar sands producers in Canada: Suncor, Cenovus, MEG Energy, Imperial Oil, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and ConocoPhillips. It’s the same old polluting Big Oil, just rebranded.
We called them out to the Competition Bureau, the agency responsible for regulating false advertising, and the Bureau is now investigating Pathways Alliance for misleading claims. That’s not all; when the federal government passed new anti-greenwashing rules in June, the Pathways Alliance and other fossil fuel companies removed their advertising and website content about climate action.
Pathways Alliance can’t run its misleading ads right now because of these anti-greenwashing rules, which is a major win! However, Pathways paid to spread its message to millions of people with huge ads on public transit, playing in airplanes, in news media, on YouTube, and even at major sporting events like the Super Bowl and the FIFA World Cup. We still need to set the record straight.
We don’t have the kind of budgets that the big polluters do, but we do have connections with people who care about the truth! Will you help us counter Pathways Alliance’s misinformation by sharing this video?
Our video spoofs one of the Pathways Alliance ads, which tried to convince the public that Big Oil was “concerned” about climate change and working on solutions. Here’s the catch: there are three big flaws with the story they’re peddling:
- Fossil fuels are still the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. In Canada, oil and gas production accounts for nearly a third of the country’s total climate pollution. When you add in the emissions from burning fossil fuels in Canada, they account for over 70 per cent of Canada’s emissions.
- The climate action they’re promoting, carbon capture and storage (CCS), is a false solution. It’s a risky and ineffective technology with a track record of failure. CCS cannot reduce our emissions at the scale required to tackle climate change. It’s also hugely expensive compared to cheaper clean energy solutions: reliable renewable sources like wind, solar and hydropower, coupled with energy storage like batteries.
- The reason they’re greenwashing and pushing CCS is because these corporations want to keep raking in billions of dollars from fossil fuels. They’re trying to buy social license and support for the oil and gas industry in Canada so that the public and government won’t push to regulate their climate pollution. Meanwhile, they’re lobbying and advocating against other emissions reduction policies.
Rather than repeat Pathways Alliance’s misleading claims, our video tells the truth and speaks to Canadians’ genuine concerns about the impacts of climate change, affordability, and the need for climate action.
Environmental Defence has been calling on the federal government to limit Big Oil’s pollution for years, and now they’ve finally released regulations that put a cap on fossil fuel industry emissions. Now the federal government is looking for feedback on this policy and we need you all to help us demand stronger regulations.
TAKE ACTION: Tell Canada you support a strong pollution cap without loopholes for Big Oil. 
