Message From the Editor

As a DeSmog reader, you're no stranger to the myriad ways in which fossil fuel companies, industry associations, and big polluters attempt to twist information and discourse to delay much-needed climate action.

So it won't come as a surprise that Pathways Alliance, a marketing and lobbying organization that represents Canada's largest oil sands producers, is up to its old tricks of using Google ads to deflect attention from a long record of misleading climate claims.

Google ad records viewed by DeSmog show that the group has been paying to advertise on the search term "Pathways Alliance greenwashing," meaning that when people type that phrase into Google, one of the first results that appears is the Pathways Alliance website.

If this sounds familiar, it's because Pathways Alliance has done this before. In 2023 it paid Google to link its website to hundreds of search terms related to climate change — things like "what is global warming," "net-zero," "carbon emissions," "climate change in canada," "why is climate change important," "whats a carbon footprint," and "government of canada climate change."

That same year, Greenpeace filed a complaint with the Competition Bureau of Canada alleging that one of the oil sands group's ad campaigns makes false or misleading representations. That ongoing complaint hasn't stopped Pathways Alliance from continuing to use Google ads as "part of their systemic attempt to influence the climate policy discussion," as one source told DeSmog journalist Geoff Dembicki.

Read Geoff's latest piece to learn more about these ads — and what Google had to say about them when we reached out.

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: [email protected]. Want to know what our UK team is up to? Sign up for our UK newsletter. 

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

P.S. Geoff and the rest of our team can lift the veil on greenwashing thanks to support from readers like you. Can you donate $10 or $20 right now to support more of this essential work?

Image credit: Arkan Perdana / Unsplash

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— By Geoff Dembicki (3 min) —

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The Pathways Alliance is a marketing and lobbying organization representing the country’s six largest oil sands producers: Imperial Oil, Suncor, ConocoPhillips, Cenovus, CNRL and MEG.

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— By Julie Dermansky (6 min. read) —

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From the Advertising & Public Relations Database: Pathways Alliance

The Pathways Alliance is an initiative of Canada’s six largest oil sands producers responsible for about 95% of Canada’s oil sands production including Canadian Natural, Cenovus Energy, ConocoPhillips Canada, Imperial, MEG Energy and Suncor Energy. The Pathways Alliance was launched with the official goal of net-zero emissions from members’ operations by 2050. However, the net-zero goal refers exclusively to emissions associated with the extraction of fossil fuels, and not the majority of emissions that occur when the fuel is burned.

Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Ad & PR Database, Climate Disinformation Database, and Koch Network Database.