400+ Scientists Tell COP27 PR Firm to Drop Exxon and Other Fossil Fuel Clients

More than 420 scientists on Friday urged Hill+Knowlton Strategies--the U.S.-based public relations firm hired by the Egyptian government to lead communications at the United Nations' annual climate summit--to drop its fossil fuel clients before the pivotal COP27 talks start this weekend in Sharm el-Sheikh.

"Letting Hill+Knowlton run communications for the climate talks is like putting the fox's PR hack in charge of branding the chicken coop."

In an open letter organized by Fossil Free Media's Clean Creatives campaign and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), the experts wrote that "Hill+Knowlton has played an enabling role in [fossil fuel industry-backed disinformation] campaigns to mislead the public through its work with clients such as Saudi Aramco, ExxonMobil, and the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative."

"These clients have not taken the fundamental steps necessary to address the climate emergency and sharply rein in fossil fuels," says the letter. "Instead, they have used Hill+Knowlton and other PR agencies to spin, delay, and mislead, in order to continue expanding fossil fuel production and thereby increasing heat-trapping emissions."

According to Clean Creatives campaign director Duncan Meisel, "Hill+Knowlton's fossil fuel clients have told investors and regulators that they plan to dig up and burn enough coal, oil, and gas to make achieving the Paris climate agreement"--which seeks to limit global warming to 1.5oC above preindustrial levels--"impossible."

"Working with these clients," Meisel said in a statement, "is incompatible with H+K's ability to be an effective advocate for action to stop the climate emergency at COP27."

The scientists concluded their letter by calling on Hill+Knowlton "to end its relationship with fossil fuel clients that are worsening the climate crisis, and commit fully to the climate action the world desperately needs."

"Climate advocates are working tirelessly to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for decades of greenwashing and deception that have enabled them to mislead people and policymakers, emit deadly levels of carbon pollution, and prioritize private gain over public interest," said Astrid Caldas, senior climate scientist for community resilience at UCS.

"Hill+Knowlton's work with fossil fuel clients is an egregious conflict of interest with the mission of COP27 and what is needed to address the worsening impacts of climate change," Caldas added.

"There's nothing to stop H+K from spinning the outcomes of the talks to benefit their fossil fuel clients or sharing key intelligence with industry partners."

Fossil Free Media director Jamie Henn argued that "letting Hill+Knowlton run communications for the climate talks is like putting the fox's PR hack in charge of branding the chicken coop."

"There's nothing to stop H+K from spinning the outcomes of the talks to benefit their fossil fuel clients or sharing key intelligence with industry partners," said Henn. "If H+K is unwilling to address these conflicts of interest, they should have no role at COP27 or future negotiations."

As UCS pointed out, "meaningful progress at the U.N. climate negotiations has been delayed in part by fossil fuel industry-funded deception campaigns."

More than 500 fossil fuel lobbyists were admitted to last year's COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland--giving the industry most responsible for causing the climate crisis a larger presence than any single country at a meeting designed to combat it.

In another analogy shared with The Washington Post, Henn compared tapping Hill+Knowlton to manage communications for COP27 to "putting Philip Morris in charge of tobacco negotiations."

As Harvard University historian and letter signatory Naomi Oreskes explained, "Hill+Knowlton was one of the central players who developed the 'tobacco playbook,' which used half-truths and disinformation to discredit the scientific evidence of the harms of smoking."

"That playbook was used for decades by Big Oil to discredit the scientific evidence of the harms of burning fossil fuels," said Oreskes. "It's unconscionable to me that COP would hire them to help with climate change PR."

U.N. Secretary General recently denounced "the massive public relations machine raking in billions to shield the fossil fuel industry from scrutiny."

"Just as they did for the tobacco industry decades before, lobbyists and spin doctors have spewed harmful misinformation," Guterres noted, echoing the findings of a yearslong U.S. congressional probe and recent warnings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "Fossil fuel interests need to spend less time averting a PR disaster--and more time averting a planetary one."

In an email to Common Dreams, Henn said that "Hill+Knowlton is at the center" of the public relations machine condemned by Guterres.

"They need to address their conflicts of interest by dropping their fossil fuel clients," he added, "or COP27 should drop them."