Message From the Editor

Another day of the Trump administration, another day of worldwide disruptions and shifts to the right. This time, in Europe: Sunday’s election results in Germany reflect a global right-wing movement that seriously threatens climate action.

This is partly thanks to billionaire Elon Musk’s public embrace of far-right populists, as four of DeSmog’s top journalists reveal [[link removed]]. The unelected Trump mouthpiece is loudly boosting [[link removed]] a transatlantic movement aimed at spreading doubt about the reality of climate change and sabotaging action on the crisis.

His interventions before Germany’s elections energized the neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which claims climate policy “threatens our freedom.” [[link removed]] The AfD secured 20.5 percent of the vote on Sunday, the far right’s strongest electoral performance in Germany since World War II.

We should be alarmed by this far-right advance and Musk’s role in supporting it.

His courtship, along with Trump’s, of hardline leaders in Europe threatens to torpedo hopes of progressive climate action by the EU, think tanks warn. And in the U.S., Musk’s ongoing war against the federal bureaucracy “erodes our collective ability to adapt to climate impacts,” Amanda Fencl, director of climate science for the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists, warns. Read the full story here [[link removed]].

So how did we get here, to a planet where right-wing fossil fuel embracers dominate the landscape? One part of the answer: a long-running global public relations and advertising campaign funded by fossil fuel interests to confuse the public.

DeSmog’s Rebecca John and Australian journalist Royce Kurmelovs explore a deliberate campaign [[link removed]] from the 1950s to embed fossil fuels into Australia’s national identity. The slick, strategic PR actions orchestrated by New York-based PR firm Hill & Knowlton [[link removed]] used deceptive tactics designed to distort facts, making it harder for people to grasp the true urgency of the climate emergency, a phenomenon still in action today.

Our investigation [[link removed]] uncovers the hidden strings pulled by Hill & Knowlton that helped the oil and gas industry tighten its grip on Australia. Their efforts didn’t just sell oil — they sold an idea, a right-leaning vision of prosperity crafted to drown out environmental concerns.

Sound familiar?

We hope you’ll enjoy this powerful deep dive into the history of PR tactics and their intersection with climate action obstruction. If you do, please share it widely.

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 [[link removed]].

Thanks,

Brendan DeMelle

Executive Director

P.S. Readers like you power our journalism dedicated to climate accountability. Can you donate $10 or $20 right now to support more of this essential work? [[link removed]] Thanks so much for your support.

Credit: France 24 English/YouTube [[link removed]]

How a New York PR Agency Helped the U.S. Oil Industry Conquer Australia [[link removed]]— By Royce Kurmelovs and Rebecca John (19 min. read) —

Hill & Knowlton played a key role in exporting Big Oil’s PR tactics to the Southern Hemisphere.

READ MORE [[link removed]] Elon Musk’s Embrace of Far-Right Energizes Transatlantic Climate Denial [[link removed]]— By Geoff Dembicki, Edward Donnelly, Joe Fassler and Adam Barnett (12 min. read) —

The tech billionaire is invigorating groups in the U.S. and Europe aiming to sabotage climate action, a DeSmog media analysis shows.

READ MORE [[link removed]] Trump and the Energy East Pipeline Revival: Why Canada Shouldn’t Waste Billions [[link removed]]— By Mitch Anderson (5 min. read) —

A smarter investment? Put that money towards a massive build-out of the nation’s electrical grid to reach projected energy demand instead.

READ MORE [[link removed]] Anti-Climate Attacks Heat Up Before Critical German Elections [[link removed]]— By Katharina Wecker and Edward Donnelly (9 min. read) —

Delay and denial have clouded debate on green issues, with potentially devastating impacts for Europe’s energy transition.

READ MORE [[link removed]] Canadian Fossil Fuel Advocate Stewart Muir on ARC Attendees List [[link removed]]— By Taylor Noakes (3 min) —

The Resource Works founder was registered to attend Jordan Peterson’s conference spotlighting climate deniers, Trump supporters and the religious right.

READ MORE [[link removed]] From the Climate Disinformation Database: Burson [[link removed]]

When Burson [[link removed]] Cohn & Wolfe and Hill + Knowlton merged in 2024 to form Burson, they created the largest public relations agency in the world. The firm represents some of the largest oil companies in the world, including Chevron, Emirates National Oil Company, Saudi Aramco, and Shell. Hill + Knowlton created the infamous playbook for the tobacco industry to convince people that smoking was not dangerous, which it carried over into the fossil fuel industry. “When the world’s leading climate scientists (IPCC) specifically called out the PR industry for obstructing climate action earlier this year, Exhibit A could have been H+K [Hill+Knowlton] — a firm that does the dirty work for none other than ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and the like,” Geoffrey Supran, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Miami who researches fossil fuel disinformation and propaganda tactics, told DeSmog by email in November 2022, when Hill + Knowlton was named as COP27’s PR firm.

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

DeSmog

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Seattle, Washington, 98107

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