The Canadian Gas Association is under investigation for alleged greenwashing after claiming its product was clean, green and affordable in its Fueling Canada ad campaign.
In late September, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment filed a complaint with the Competition Bureau Canada, a federal watchdog that protects consumers from false and misleading claims by companies. In early November, the office notified the association that it was moving forward with an investigation.
Dr. Melissa Lem, president of CAPE, told The Tyee that the oil and gas industry is revamping its decades-long campaign to minimize the impacts of climate change. Now the industry is trying to whitewash its product — and organizations like CAPE are working to counter those claims, she says.
“It’s time we held the fossil fuel industry accountable for its misleading claims, to end the proliferation of fossil fuels and ensure we have a healthy future,” Lem said.
The Canadian Gas Association is not the only one to be audited. The Competition Bureau is also investigating Royal Bank of Canada for greenwashing after environmental organization Stand.earth and law firm Ecojustice filed a complaint alleging the bank misled customers by claiming to be working to reduce emissions while investing heavily in the production and expansion of fossil fuels.
It’s “particularly egregious” for the Canadian Gas Association to use images of “happy, healthy families cooking on open-flame gas stoves,” says Lem, because “we know that research says children living in homes with gas stoves have a 42% higher risk of developing asthma.
Advertising fossil gas, also known as natural gas, as “clean” while showing pictures of people walking through lush, green forests implies that the product is good for your health and does not create pollution, said Lem. “It’s quite the opposite,” she adds.
The complaint also raised concerns that marketing a product as “economy” could attract low-income customers, who could be heavily impacted by the carbon tax and emissions reduction strategies that drive up fossil gas prices in the years to come.
(A recent Tyee article debunked some similar claims made by the province’s main fossil gas utility, FortisBC, which you can read here.)
When asked to respond to the allegations, Timothy Egan, president and CEO of the Canadian Gas Association, told The Tyee that the association will cooperate with the investigation and “is confident in its position. “.
Demand for fossil gas is growing in Canada, adds Egan.
Members of the Canadian Gas Association include FortisBC, Enbridge, Énergir, TC Energy, Heritage Gas and Epcor.
CAPE is calling on the Canadian Gas Association to stop advertising fossil gas as clean, green and affordable and pay a $10 million fine. This is the highest possible fine under the Competition Act.
The Competition Bureau did not respond to questions about fines or punitive measures that may be associated with greenwashing.
Lem says filing the complaint with the bureau was the second phase of CAPE’s Fossil Fuel Ads Make Us Sick campaign, which is calling on Canada to ban advertising of fossil fuels and internal combustion engine vehicles. .
The first phase, launched in June 2022, included an open letter to the government calling for an advertising ban.
Similar campaigns abroad have been successful in Amsterdam, which banned fossil fuel and aviation ads last year, and in France, which banned fossil fuel-related ads this summer. For now, fossil gas advertising is allowed, but it will probably be phased out next summer.
Then there is the RBC survey.
The lawsuit filed in June 2022 says RBC presents itself as environmentally conscious and supports the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C and the federal goal of net-zero emissions in its loans by 2050.
But in practice, RBC is funding fossil fuel development and expansion, including the Coastal GasLink pipeline, which is being built on unceded territory of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, without the consent of the hereditary chiefs of the nation.
RBC “does not agree” with the allegations and calls them “unsubstantiated”.
“RBC has engaged with our customers, partners and stakeholders, working on solutions to meet its net zero commitments,” Andrew Block, a spokesman for the bank, told The Tyee in a statement. “We have taken a measured, considered and deliberate approach in our climate strategy.”
This is the same statement RBC gave The Tyee when the complaint was first filed with the Competition Bureau in May 2022, before an investigation was launched.
According to the annual Banking on Climate Chaos report, produced by environmental organizations, RBC is the world’s fifth largest fossil fuel financier, providing $48.4 billion in fossil fuel financing in 2021 and $251.2 billion since. 2016, when Canada signed the Paris Agreement. such as the Rainforest Action Network and the Sierra Club.
The bank is also unlikely to abandon its oil investments any time soon. RBC calculates that the price of oil must stay above $50 a barrel for the next 20 to 30 years for its oil sands investments to be profitable.
There will be a “significant impact” within the Canadian banking industry if RBC is found guilty of greenwashing, Ecojustice lawyer Matt Hulse told The Tyee. RBC is the market leader. If slapped, other banks will “quickly” update their marketing strategies, he says.
The suit against RBC asked the bank to also be fined $10 million, Hulse said.
In January 2022, coffee company Keurig Canada Inc. had to pay out nearly $4 million when the Competition Bureau found its single-serve pods weren’t as easily recyclable as the company’s marketing suggested. ‘company.
The Competition Law is currently under review and public consultations are open until February 27, 2023.
Hulse says the law needs to be updated so that greenwashing can be countered in a “more systematic and proactive way,” rather than the current “ad hoc whack-a-mole” system. ![[Tyee]](https://teen-babble.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Federal-authorities-have-launched-investigations-into-greenwashing-Look-who-is.png){kind=small}
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