Corporate advocacy for carbon capture and storage is falling short of climate change goals recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), according to a recent study from InfluenceMap's LobbyMap platform.
The IPCC benchmarked pathways for limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius or well below 2 degrees Celsius, but CCS goals touted by corporations over the past few years won’t meet this limit. The LobbyMap platform tracks the climate policy engagement of over 500 of the world’s largest companies and 250 industry associations.
The data found that oil and gas companies tended to be the biggest supporters of CCS from 2021 to 2023. In fact, the most active companies when it comes to CCS-related policy include Occidental Petroleum, ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Santos, and Cenovus, as well as industry associations such as the Australian Energy Producers (formerly APPEA), International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP), Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and American Petroleum Institute.
Despite supporting CCS policies, including using PR, advertising, regulatory lobbying, and promoting the technology, the support falls flat.
“Over 80% of all evidence of corporate engagement on CCS captured by the LobbyMap platform between 2021-2023 is not aligned with science-based policy guidance,” the report found.
One of the biggest issues with the support for CCS technology from these corporations is that they are failing to “clarify how the technology should be best applied in line with IPCC guidance.” Plus, they aren’t using CCS technology as a means to transition away from fossil fuels. Instead, these companies often ask for big tax breaks to commercialize CCS technology.
One such example is in Korea, where the Federation of Korean Industries is pushing for significant financial support for CCS over other decarbonization solutions, the report highlighted.
As such, it appears that CCS allows for continued oil and gas expansion. Corporate advocacy on the technology actually promotes this, as well as that CCS is central to meeting global climate targets and that it can support jobs and communities. However, these claims misrepresent the science-based policy guidelines, the report stated.
“Together, they have been pushed by the fossil fuel sector at international and regional levels with the ultimate impact of capturing the global narrative on the role of CCS, misdirecting policy attention away from fossil fuel phase-out, and enabling policy and investment decisions based on ‘business-as-usual’ assumptions for the oil and gas sector,” the report noted.
Further, previous InfluenceMap analysis of the International Gas Union revealed that the group is helping the sector create common messaging for these goals, leveraging the deployment of CCS technology to prolong the future for fossil fuels. This research suggests “strong collaboration” among oil and gas companies in their CCS advocacy.
The report suggested these companies have even been successful at influencing countries with their advocacy, based on government messaging on CCS. Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States suggest CCS as the primary means of decarbonization among oil and gas. However, countries with large, state-owned oil, gas, and coal companies support CCS alongside other significant long-term roles for fossil fuels.
See the full report here.
