Africa-Press – South-Africa. As many as 22 civil society organisations in South Africa have implored public relations and ad agencies in an open letter to stop doing business with fossil fuel companies – which are causing climate change.
The letter, organised by Clean Creatives South Africa – part of a global movement of advertisers and PR professionals and their clients cutting ties with fossil fuel companies – was published on Human Rights Day, 21 March.
The signatories include the Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation, the Centre for Environmental Rights and shareholder activist group Just Share.
“The continued prioritisation of fossil fuels over cheaper, cleaner alternatives is hurting the economy, the environment and human health — with poor and vulnerable communities worst affected as they are least prepared to cope with floods, heatwaves, droughts and food shortages,” the letter read.
Just a day before, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its sixth assessment cycle synthesis report, which captures seven years worth of work by hundreds of scientists around the world assessing research on climate change.
It shows that more than a century of burning fossil fuels, coupled with unsustainable energy and land use has escalated global warming which is around 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels. As part of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, 195 countries in 2015 agreed to limit warming to 1.5°C. The continued reliance on fossil fuels will see humanity on a path to overshoot that target – which will result in more extreme, deadly weather events such as the floods in KwaZulu-Natal in April 2022.
In their letter, the civil society groups said that as public relations and advertising companies continue to run campaigns for fossil fuel companies, it deflects from the harm the industry is causing. “These campaigns, which mirror those used in the tobacco industry decades ago, greenwash oil, gas and coal companies in an attempt to slow or block meaningful change,” the letter read.
“It’s time for PR and ad agencies to come clean, end their work with the fossil fuel industry, and be a force for good, rather than part of the problem. Scientists at the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have specifically called out the creative industry for hampering efforts to prevent a full-blown climate catastrophe, and we must heed those calls.”
The groups called on public relations and ad companies to “stand on the right side of history” and work with them to ensure “meaningful change”.
Globally the Clean Creatives movement, which was founded in the US, has garnered pledges from over 500 agencies and more than 1 300 individual creative professionals to decline future work from the fossil fuel industry.
Speaking to News24, Clean Creatives SA country director Stephen Horn said that the civil society organisations are on the “frontlines every day pushing a message of climate responsibility and other human rights-related issues”, but their work is “undermined” by the advertising and creative industry which is promoting fossil fuel companies.
Their campaigns for the fossil fuel industry amount to greenwashing – which is making false claims or misrepresenting a company as being environmentally friendly when it is not. This has the effect of slowing down climate action, which is needed.
“Advertising for the fossil fuel industry creates a social licence for the industry to continue polluting and slows meaningful action on climate change. This letter should be a wake-up call to companies working to improve the image of a company like Shell, which raised the ire of hundreds of thousands of South Africans with its plans to search for oil and gas off the Wild Coast,” said Horn.
Horn is referring to a proposed seismic survey off the Wild Coast by Shell was legally challenged by fishing communities and civil society groups. Among the concerns raised by the applicants is that oil and gas exploration would contribute to climate change. A high court had blocked the seismic survey, but Shell and Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe have since been granted leave to appeal the decision at the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Horn said that the letter is an opportunity for these creative agencies to respond by making a pledge to decline future work with fossil fuel companies, he added.
Clean Creatives SA recently landed the support of IDIDTHAT.CO, a leading online directory for the advertising and production industry in South Africa. Horn said that the collaboration with IDIDTHAT seeks to create a conscience within the creative industry around climate change and fossil fuels.
IDIDTHAT’s support means it will not award the “Best in Craft” to any fossil fuel companies, which takes place monthly, according to founder, Julie Maunder.
See the full list of signatories:
Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation
Greenpeace Africa
The Centre For Environmental Rights
350Africa.org
The Green Connection
African Climate Reality Project
Southern African Faith Communities Environment Institute, SAFCEI
South Durban Community Environmental Alliance
Just Share
Climate Action Network South Africa
Earthlife Africa
groundWork
African Climate Alliance
Fossil Free South Africa
Extinction Rebellion Cape Town
Don’t Gas Africa
Friends of the Liesbeek
Green Anglicans
Goldfields Community Forum
WILDTRUST
The Wild Law Institute
UCT Green Campus Initiative
The letter can be found here.
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