Description
Who: Shell
Where: the Netherlands
What: Can’t use ‘CO2 neutral' nor 'CO2 compensation' in their ads, advertising watchdog rules after multiple complaints
When: August 2021 - October 2022
Shell has been campaigning for years with the claim that customers can offset their emissions by paying 1 cent extra for forestry projects. Both the claims carbon neutral and CO2 compensation (offsetting) are off limits now.
Carbon neutral
Nine law students of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, supported by Reclame Fossielvrij and Greenpeace Netherlands, filed a case against Shell’s ‘Driving carbon neutral’ claim. This claim was made in an advertising campaign in which Shell promised to their customers that for 1 cent per litre, the CO2 emissions of their filled up tank would be compensated. "Companies cannot scientifically substantiate claims about carbon offsets," said Clemens Kaupa, associate professor of climate law at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Separate from the students, concerned citizen André Kodde filed a second complaint against Shell’s tanker truck with the text ‘I am CO2 neutral on my way. Are you as well?’. Both ad campaigns were ruled to be misleading by the Dutch Advertising Code Committee in August 2021.
CO2 compensation
After the Dutch Advertising Code Committee ruled that Shell can’t use ‘carbon neutral’ in their ads, Shell changed the term to ‘CO2 compensation’, without changing any of the underlying principles of the deemed invalid compensation scheme. Reclame Fossielvrij and Clemens Kaupa again filed a complaint and again won from Shell. 'This is a statement against the whole practice of offsetting CO2,' Kaupa said.
Shell however appealed the case, but lost again a few months later in October 2022. The Dutch watchdog judged that again ‘CO2 compensation’ is an absolute claim for which Shell can’t show enough scientific evidence. Kaupa: 'Whatever you call a sham solution - carbon-neutral or carbon offsetting - for something that just doesn't work, any term is misleading. You simply cannot undo CO2 emissions by planting or protecting trees.'
