A 2,900% Increase in Greenwash: Big Oil Targeted Brazil With Google Ads To Undermine COP30
In the 10 months leading up to COP30, in Belém, Brazil, Big Oil increased its use of Google Ads targeting the country, with the number of adverts spiking by 2,900% between September and October alone. The advertising surge highlights the industry’s efforts to use its money to maintain its social license to pollute in the build-up to COP30, according to a new report released today by the Climate Action Against Disinformation coalition (CAAD) and the Climainfo Institute.
Petrobras, Brazil’s state-owned oil company, responsible for 86% of the country’s oil incidents, ran 665 ads in the first 10 months of 2025.
Globally, oil companies increased their Google Ad numbers by 218% in October, going from 1,939 ads, or an average 65 ads per day, in September, to 206 a day in October, some 6,384 ads. State-backed Saudi Aramco increased ads by 469.2% month-on-month in October with over 10,000 ads total, while TotalEnergies ramped up ads by 106.5%, and ExxonMobil by 156.3%, a seemingly smaller increase due to their overall high number of ads. The opposite was true for BP, which started the year with a low base of ads that increased by 1,369.2%.
“Every year Big Oil spends big money on greenwashing and disinformation, and it’s well past time policymakers stop letting Big Tech players like Google get rich off lies used to justify the pollution that’s killing people and the planet,” said CAAD coalition communications co-chair Philip Newell.
“Oil companies have intensified their presence on Google Ads precisely in the months leading up to COP30. They know this is a decisive moment in which countries will define the next steps in the energy transition. Countries must take advantage of this strategic moment to design and approve a roadmap towards the end of fossil fuels,” says Climainfo researcher Renata Albuquerque Ribeiro, who conducted the analysis.
“We believe that greenwashing in adverts by fossil fuel companies poses a major threat to climate information integrity,” added Travis Coan of C3DS. “It’s great to see researchers from CAAD and Climainfo use our data to shine a light on this issue.”
“Fossil fuel advertising needs to be phased out urgently,” ACT Climate Labs co-founder Florencia Lujani added. “The fossil fuel industry is fundamentally different to others: they have misled the public about climate change for decades, they are the largest contributors to climate change, and they actively obstruct climate action. Agencies and media owners should not be working with fossil fuel clients, as no other industry combines this unique direct climate impact with greenwash and threats to information integrity at such scale”
The research was conducted in partnership with Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD), Centre for Climate Communication and Data Science at the University of Exeter (C3DS), and Climainfo Institute. The database provides information on Google Ads from 42 companies across extractive and heavy industrial sectors, and includes 24 oil companies.
