Researchers can explore 1700 fossil fuel ads through the Oxford Carbon and Climate Advertising Library
After more than a year of research by a team of ten researchers, the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme’s Climate Litigation Lab, led by Associate Professor of Climate Litigation Benjamin Franta, has launched the Oxford Carbon and Climate Advertising Library (OxCCAL).
OxCCAL, with over 1700 unique climate-related advertisements from fossil fuel producers, is one of the most comprehensive collections of sustainability-themed ads from the Carbon Majors to date.
It includes ads from ExxonMobil (373 ads), Chevron (247 ads), Shell (566 ads), BP (395 ads), Total (114 ads), ConocoPhillips (9 ads), and the American Petroleum Institute (14 ads).
“OxCCAL is a treasure trove for those interested in greenwashing, climate-related messaging, fossil fuel advertising, or related topics,” says Benjamin Franta, Associate Professor of Climate Litigation. “As one of the largest curated collections of climate-related advertisements in the world, OxCCAL represents an enormous amount of work by a dedicated team of researchers – led by our Research Associate Dr. Juliana Vélez Echeverri – working for over a year to amass and organise this unique dataset and is a significant step forward for global efforts to promote transparency and integrity in the climate communications space.”
“Featuring ads from print publications, TV channels, websites and social media platforms, OxCCAL shows how carbon majors have sought to pay lip service to climate action while carrying on with 'business as usual' over the past two decades,” says research consultant Sam Faroqui.
Currently, the collection spans the years 2006—2024 with ads on a range of topics including carbon capture (169 ads), biofuels (344 ads), fossil gas (201 ads), hydrogen (87 ads), carbon neutrality and carbon offsets (52 and 20 ads, respectively), overall company sustainability and low carbon investments (297 and 355 ads, respectively), and more.
“Many of these ads promote narratives – such as fossil gas being low carbon, carbon capture being widespread, or Carbon Majors transitioning away from fossil fuels – that may be misleading, especially in light of fossil fuel companies’ still-paltry investments in renewable energy compared to fossil fuels, which stand at less than 3%, according to a 2023 report by the International Energy Agency,” says Dr Franta.
The ads appeared primarily in the US on local and national media properties including YouTube (170 ads), The New York Times (133 ads), The Wall Street Journal (122 ads), Politico (107 ads), The Economist (98 ads), The Atlantic (97 ads), The Washington Post (77 ads), and more.
OxCCAL was built through the University of Oxford’s subscription to MediaRadar, an advertising intelligence platform. Under the University’s agreement with MediaRadar, OxCCAL is available for research use by academics, nonprofit organizations, government offices, journalists, and various other groups. Research inquiries may be sent to Dr Benjamin Franta at benjamin.franta@smithschool.ox.ac.uk.
