For immediate release: October 27, 2025
ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE, F MINUS, RE•GENERATION
Climate-Conflicted Lobbyists Exposed by New Report and Database
Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – A new report, “Canada’s Climate-Conflicted Lobbyists,” co-published by Environmental Defence, re•generation, and F Minus, reveals that lobbying firms working on behalf of the fossil fuel industry also represent groups seeking climate action. With Canada’s weak lobbyist disclosure requirements, many of these firms’ climate-concerned clients may not even be aware that these conflicts exist. The report highlights the lobbyists for some of Canada’s largest fossil fuel companies who also lobby on behalf of conservation groups, health care groups, and local governments. Accompanying the report is a new database that reveals every national and provincial fossil fuel lobbyist in Canada and their other clients.
The most climate-conflicted lobbying firm identified by the report is Crestview Strategy, which promotes pro-fossil fuel policies on behalf of seven fossil fuel clients, including Equinor, which extracts offshore oil in Newfoundland, and Tourmaline, the country’s largest natural gas producer. At the same time, Crestview lobbies to strengthen some climate policies on behalf of the Canadian Medical Association, which has declared that “the climate crisis is a health crisis,” and lobbies for “climate-resilient infrastructure” on behalf of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta. Other Crestview clients in 2025 have included the University of Guelph, which has divested from fossil fuels, and the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, which is facing pressure from its members to divest.
The report recommends that the government require lobbyists to disclose conflicts of interest and improve lobbying transparency. Without clear disclosure obligations, clients who want to see more climate action from governments risk having their efforts undermined by the very firms hired to represent their interests, as they lobby on behalf of fossil fuel clients.
Oil and gas companies are the largest contributors of climate pollution in Canada, and their products are the leading cause of rapidly accelerating global warming. The fossil fuel extraction industry has a long history of fighting climate policy and trying to undermine the energy transition. This report highlights how Big Oil doesn’t work alone. The fossil fuel industry uses influential actors like lobby firms, as well as ad agencies and pro-oil think tanks, to maintain their widespread influence and delay the transition off of oil and gas, leading to the climate crisis’s devastating impacts.
Other key findings from the report:
- StrategyCorp, the second-most-conflicted firm, lobbies on behalf of the Pathways Alliance, a consortium of six oil companies, in addition to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Second Harvest, the Prostate Cancer Centre, and the governments of Halton Region and Durham Region, both of which have declared a climate emergency. Big City Mayors of Ontario retained the firm from 2021-2022 and again from 2024 through July 2025.
- Canadian fossil fuel lobbyists operate with an extraordinary degree of secrecy compared to fossil fuel lobbyists in the U.S. and EU, as Canada does not require lobbyists to disclose their compensation and does not enforce a requirement to disclose bill numbers. A review of 2025 disclosures by the 17 fossil fuel companies represented by the four lobbying firms profiled in this report finds zero instances of these firms disclosing which bills the firms lobbied upon.
- Combining national and provincial lobbyist listings, there are more than 150 health care companies and organizations that share lobbying firms with fossil fuel companies, 40 universities and colleges that do so, and nine conservation groups that do so.
Quotes
Emilia Belliveau, Energy Transition program manager for Environmental Defence Canada
“Fossil fuel industry lobbying in Canada is holding us back. But we know lobbying is just one tactic in Big Oil’s playbook to delay climate action and keep us hooked on their profitable and polluting products. The influence of the fossil fuel lobby has lowered the government’s climate ambition at a moment when the world is looking for Canada to become North America’s climate leader. Big Oil is pushing Canada to go all in on fossil fuel exports while the world is racing towards renewable energy. We have the technology, we just need political leadership to prioritize climate action above the interests of fossil fuel companies who’ve already made billions but still feel entitled to more.”
Gareth Gransaull, Executive Director of Re•generation
“Government relations firms in Canada should be required to disclose when they are lobbying on two sides of an issue. Fossil fuel companies in Canada are actively obstructing climate policy, and using lobbying as a strategy to weaken regulations and push for fossil fuel expansion. Environmental advocacy groups and health associations raising concerns about the climate crisis should be able to know when their lobbyists are also representing fossil fuel interests. Canada needs better disclosure rules to shine a light on potential conflicts of interest and strengthen democratic accountability for all Canadians.”
James Browning, Executive Director of F Minus
“Canada has a lobbying disclosure crisis on top of the climate crisis. Canadian lobbyists operate with an extraordinary degree of secrecy compared to lobbyists in the U.S. or EU, and this secrecy makes it easy for them to play both sides of the climate crisis. Solving this disclosure crisis is the first step toward holding these lobbyists accountable for their extreme and reckless embrace of fossil fuels.”
Duff Conacher, Coordinator, Democracy Watch
“Canada’s lobbying law and code, and the lobbying laws across the country, have loopholes that allow for secret, unethical lobbying, and until all of these loopholes are closed secret corrupt favour-trading between lobbyists and politicians will continue to be legal and will undermine every policy-making and government contracting process.”
The F Minus database of all national and provincial fossil fuel lobbyists in Canada is available here.
ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.
ABOUT F MINUS: F Minus is a research and advocacy organization that created the first-ever database of state-level fossil fuel lobbyists in the United States.
ABOUT RE•GENERATION: Re•generation is a Montreal-based youth climate advocacy organization that focuses on accelerating the just transition to a clean economy. We empower youth to find careers in climate action, and shine light on the corporations that stand in the way of a clean energy future.
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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:
Midhat Moini, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca
James Browning, Executive Director, F Minus, james.browning@fminus.org
Gareth Gransaull, gareth@re-generation.ca
