Renewable Revolution

November 30, 2021


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Top PR firms have played a significant and overlooked role in denying and obfuscating the science of climate change while bolstering the reputations of major polluters, a peer-reviewed study in Climatic Change reveals.

Researchers analyzed more than 2,800 "unique engagements" between PR firms and entities within five groups: the coal, steel and rail sector; the oil and gas industry; the electric utility sector; the renewable energy industry; and the environmental movement.

Utilities and the oil and gas sector hired PR firms the most, and the environmental movement hired PR firms the least. While the fossil fuel industry's denial of climate science, efforts to shift responsibility for climate change to consumers, and obstruction of action to address climate change are well documented, "PR people become these kinds of glue or network builders among all of these different industries, and so their power is outsize[d] in that way," Melissa Aronczyk, a media studies professor at Rutgers University, told E&E. "How else would these different industries kind of speak to each other?" (E&E $, DeSmog)