Shell loses Dutch appeal over misleading carbon emission advertising 

The company has come under increasing pressure over its role in climate change

Shell’s appeal came after the Advertising Code Committee ruled once again earlier this summer that the company has no way of demonstrating that its campaign eliminates the damage it causes through fossil fuels.

Shell has lost its appeal against the Dutch advertising watchdog’s ruling that an ad campaign that promoted carbon dioxide emission credits was misleading and must be withdrawn.

Shell’s advertisements offer customers the option to pay extra for their fuel, with the money going to buy credits in emission reduction projects that “compensate” for the pollution generated. The ads are a reboot of a similar campaign last year that the regulator also deemed misleading.

“There is no or insufficient evidence that the forest projects in which Shell invests are actually capable of realising the carbon credits’ converted absorption of CO2 in a way that fully offsets the CO2 emissions of Shell’s fossil fuel,” said the appeals board of the Advertising Code Committee.

Shell’s appeal came after the Advertising Code Committee ruled once again earlier this summer that the company has no way of demonstrating that its campaign eliminates the damage it causes through fossil fuels. The committee is a self-regulating initiative that formulates the rules with which advertising must comply but its verdicts are not legally binding.

'No deception'

According to Shell, there is no question of deception in its advertisements. Shell does not agree in principle with the reasoning followed by the Dutch Advertising Committee in the ruling and will consider in the coming period what steps to take, a spokesperson said. 

In the meantime, the company is adjusting the wording in the Netherlands to make it clearer what CO2 compensation exactly means and what benefits it offers, they said.

Shell has come under increasing pressure over its role in climate change as the company claims its energy transition plans will produce more low-carbon fuels and slash greenhouse gas emissions. Shell’s plans to offset industrial emissions relies on what it calls “nature-based solutions” such as planting trees, reforesting, and restoring land.

• Bloomberg