The Industry’s Future

Fossil fuel companies, many now rebranded as energy companies, are implementing different alternatives — from carbon capture and storage and offsets to green hydrogen and natural gas — to bring down their carbon footprint while pledging to reach net zero targets. This opens up new areas for investigation for reporters around the world, who can track whether these strategies are working, uncover potential problems, and detect greenwashing strategies.

So far, investigations have raised red flags on many of these, including carbon credits for carbon that was never captured, carbon capture projects that missed targets and increased emissions and natural gas branded as green when it wasn’t. But this could be only touching the surface. As the energy transition accelerates in response to the climate crisis, pursuing these types of stories will become even more relevant for investigative reporters.

Net Zero

Net zero is the state in which greenhouse gasses going into the atmosphere are balanced by removal from the atmosphere. It’s important because this is the point at which global warming stops. The Paris Agreement from 2015 emphasizes its importance. It calls for countries to “achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gasses in the second half of this century.”

The World Resources Institute (WRI) explains that achieving net zero requires a two-part approach. First, emissions have to be reduced as close to zero as possible. Second, any remaining emissions should be balanced with an equivalent amount of carbon removal. Limiting warming to 1.5°C, one of the targets of the Paris Agreement, depends on emissions reaching net zero between 2050 and 2060.

While it’s a scientific concept, net zero has largely become a political and economic goal, with a growing momentum for governments and companies to set net-zero targets. More than 100 countries, representing 80% of the global emissions, and 1,177 publicly-listed companies are currently covered by a net-zero target. This includes fossil fuel companies, with 75 of the 112 largest ones having already set net-zero targets.

However, this is where it gets tricky. Most fossil fuel companies haven’t committed to transition away from fossil fuel extraction and production, despite a UN High-Level Experts Group saying that for net zero targets to be credible they must include targets to end fossil fuels. Most net-zero targets of fossil fuel companies also don’t fully cover or don’t clarify coverage of Scope 3 emissions (the use of fuels by customers, and the largest scope of emissions by far for fossil fuel companies).

Key Questions

• What’s behind the net-zero target of a fossil fuel company? Which types of emissions are covered?
• Does the company have a detailed plan to deliver on its target?
• What do independent researchers and NGOs say about the target?
• Has the target and its progress been verified by an independent entity?
• Are there any discrepancies between the company’s net zero targets and its actual practices?

Case Studies

CLEW Focus: “Climate Neutral” Products and Companies — Greenwashing or Sign of Serious Action? The Clean Energy Wire (CLEW) published a dossier in 2023 to analyze the flurry of net-zero claims by companies worldwide. They did stories on false net-zero claims on products in the European Union, looked at reports over net-zero targets that actually reduced emissions to a limited extent and created a “devil in the detail” factsheet for reporters.

The Tough Truth Behind Corporate Net Zero Sustainability Targets. Kristen Talman, features correspondent for the BBC, published an in-depth article in 2023 on companies’ net-zero pledges and found many are complicated and opaque and lack an action plan. She listed examples from a wide array of companies and highlighted the outstanding questions about transparency and meaningful steps towards change.

The Dishonest Accounting of Net-Zero Emissions. Mark Schapiro, an investigative freelance reporter, published an article in Capital & Main in 2023 on how net-zero pledges of fossil fuel companies don’t cover the full spectrum of their emissions. He also included a useful overview of net zero and explained the problems that can come up with the term, potentially leading to greenwashing from companies.

Tankers transporting fossil fuels travel along a river next to a solar power generation farm. Image: Shutterstock

Tips and Resources

Speaking at the 2024 International Journalism Festival (IJF), Sören Amelang, staff correspondent at CLEW (Clean Energy Wire), said that, so far, net-zero pledges have been largely unregulated and that it’s up to journalists to analyze and expose them if they are greenwashing. With their ambitious claims companies can in fact be “sweeping problematic emissions under the carpet,” he added.

Mark Schapiro agreed, and told GIJN that reporters should be cautious of what’s behind a net-zero pledge. “You have to look at the activities to which they assign greenhouse gasses,” he said. “In fossil fuel companies net-zero claims, they usually talk about emissions from a specific facility and not include the emissions of the use of their products by cars around the world.”

To expose the fossil fuel industry’s true intentions, climate change journalists attending the 13th Global Investigative Journalism Conference in 2023 (GIJC23) suggested having a healthy skepticism over net-zero pledges and asking why companies are pursuing the target and how they plan to fulfill it — looking at what specific actions are included and for when.

At IJF, Amelang suggested working with climate researchers and scientists to analyze companies’ net-zero targets. CLEW has worked with the non-profit NewClimate Institute on a seven-step guide with questions for reporters to ask about net-zero targets, including: Does the company publish complete data on its emissions? Does it have interim targets? Does it have a plan to transition from fossil fuels?

Additional Resources

Net Zero Tracker: Was put together by a collaboration between four research organizations. It looks at net zero pledges by countries, regions, cities with over 500,000 inhabitants, and the world’s largest 2,000 publicly listed companies by annual revenue.

MSCI Net-Zero Tracker: The periodic report, developed by the investment research company Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI), indicates the collective progress of publicly listed companies in keeping global warming well below 2°C and highlights the companies with improved climate disclosures, as well as those that lag.

Clean Energy Wire (CLEW) guides to net zero and company claims: CLEW produced two valuable documents for reporters. First, a guide to unpick a net zero target in seven steps. Second, a guide to cover companies’ climate claims.

Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor: A tool developed by the non-profit organization NewClimate Institute. It analyzes the climate strategies of 51 major global companies, critically assessing the extent to which they demonstrate corporate climate leadership. It analyzes the emissions disclosed by companies based on its own methodology.

Carbon Capture, Use, and Storage

Carbon capture, use, and storage (CCUS) is a technological process that captures greenhouse gas emissions, generally from large sources like power generation or industrial facilities that use fossil fuels or biomass as fuel. The emissions are captured before they enter the atmosphere and then either permanently stored underground or incorporated into certain types of products, such as concrete.

A carbon capture and usage greenhouse in Switzerland that uses carbon dioxide emissions from an incineration plant to grow crops. Image: Matjaz Krivic, Creative Commons via Climate Visuals

While carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology focuses mainly on the capture and sequestration of CO₂ to mitigate emissions, CCUS takes a step further by finding practical applications for the captured carbon.

There are now 45 CCUS commercial facilities and over 700 projects on the pipeline. An analysis by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows that the deployment of the technology is necessary to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The US, for example, would have to set up 1,000 capture facilities nationwide to reach its net-zero target.

Some environmental NGOs and researchers have described the technology as a “false solution” that allows fossil fuel companies to appear to be addressing climate change while continuing with business as usual. DeSmog wrote a fact sheet to explain the problems with the technology, from its slow deployment to the many safety concerns.

Key Questions

• Is the technology being used to extend the life of fossil fuel infrastructure?
• Is the specific CCUS or CCS project you’re investigating working the way it should? Or is it underperforming?
• How is the project being monitored and regulated? Has it faced any opposition from local communities?

Case Studies

Fossil Fuel Companies Made Bold Promises to Capture Carbon. Here’s What Actually Happened. Journalists Michael Buchsbaum and Edward Donnelly reviewed 12 large-scale carbon capture projects in an article for DeSmog in 2023. They found missed carbon capture targets, cost-overruns, and billions of dollars in subsidies. The two reporters also published an accompanying analysis of how the technology is driving new oil and gas exploration.

Big Oil’s Climate Fix Is Running Out of Time to Prove Itself. Stephen Stapczynski, a reporter at Bloomberg, found in 2023 that while governments and companies have spent over $80 on carbon capture projects in the last three decades, the technology only captured 0.1% of global emissions in 2022. He listed the problems of the technology, like its costs, and gave examples of projects from different countries.

ExxonMobil Accused of ‘Greenwashing’ Over Carbon Capture Plan It Failed to Invest In. Journalist Ben Webster looked in an article published in 2024 in the Guardian and OpenDemocracy at a carbon capture project by ExxonMobil in the UK. The project was questioned as greenwashing because of not having received a license or government support, and because the company didn’t allocate any of its own funding to build it. Responding to the outlets’ questions, an Exxon spokesperson said: “ExxonMobil is committed to playing a key role in the energy transition. This transition takes time and is not a linear process, with pace and direction shaped by factors including technology advances, enabling policy, economy and public support.”

Tips and Resources

While highlighting the importance of reporting about carbon capture, Phoebe Cooke, UK co-deputy editor at DeSmog, acknowledged it can be challenging. “It gets complicated to understand carbon capture unless you are a scientist. And as most journalists aren’t, it’s not straightforward,” she added.

Cooke suggested reporters first get basic knowledge of the issue and then have a list of easily accessible experts to contact when working on a carbon capture story, from campaigners to researchers. “If you don’t understand it yourself before writing about it, then it would be difficult to debunk. That’s the most valuable lesson,” she said.

Journalists at GIJC23 suggested accessing public records to get information on carbon capture projects, as fossil fuel companies often get government subsidies for these efforts. Other sources of information include annual reports from companies, regulatory filings, and reports from intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.

Additional Resources

Carbon Capture and Storage — ‘False solution’ or vital tool to curb emissions?: De Smog created a useful factsheet with the most relevant information related to carbon capture. It goes through the pros and cons of relying on this approach.

International Energy Agency (IEA) carbon capture database: It covers all large-scale CO₂ capture, transport, storage, and utilization projects commissioned or in planning worldwide.

Compensations and Offsets

Carbon offsetting is a process that enables individuals, businesses, or governments to balance their emissions by investing in projects that reduce or remove emissions in other locations, mainly developing countries. It involves purchasing carbon credits representing emissions avoided, reduced, or removed that can be traded between organizations.

In theory, after reducing their emissions as much as possible, organizations can use offsets to invest in low-carbon technologies or forest restoration projects to “cancel out” their remaining emissions. However, this also can allow entities to maintain their current level of emissions while making reduction claims based solely on offsets, as Carbon Brief explained.

Offset projects have boomed in recent years worldwide and spawned a growing market with a number of actors, including project developers, auditors, certification standards, and credit traders. However, investigations by NGOs and journalists have shown that some projects may have negative impacts on Indigenous peoples and local communities and also overstate the emissions they can reduce. Carbon Brief mapped 61 recent projects in different countries and found a wide array of problems in most of them.

A carbon offset tree-planting project. Image: Shutterstock

Key Questions

• Who is benefiting from the carbon offset project? Were communities properly consulted and are they actually active in it?
• Are social and environmental safeguards being followed?
• Is the project working? Are emissions being reduced? Does it have a proper baseline? Is it overstating its environmental results?

Case Studies

Gray Carbon and Opaque Carbon. The Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (El CLIP, in Spanish), and other media partners published two series of articles between 2021 and 2024 on carbon offset projects that aren’t working the way they should in five countries. For example, some projects were sold without the communities’ awareness.

The Social Cost of Carbon Credits. Jack Thompson, a freelance journalist based in Senegal, published an article in Hakai Magazine in 2024 looking at a $4.4 million carbon offset project that left almost no benefits to locals. Thompson traveled through the Saloum Delta interviewing people who planted mangroves for the offset project and found concerning situations, such as substandard wages and lack of community involvement.

Revealed: Top Carbon Offset Projects May Not Cut Planet-Heating Emissions. Nina Lakhani, a senior climate justice reporter for the Guardian US, analyzed in an article in 2023 the top 50 carbon offset projects together with researchers from the non-profit Corporate Accountability and found almost 80% were classified as junk. They failed multiple criteria needed to guarantee the promised emission cuts, such as an inflated baseline.

Tips and Resources

Andrés Bermúdez Liévano, a journalist based in Colombia who has led El CLIP’s work on carbon offsets, told GIJN they found common problems in most of the projects, including a lack of proper consultation with local communities, scarce accountability on project revenue, auditors who don’t visit projects, conflicts of interest in the carbon value chain (like project developers hiring former business partners as their auditors), companies purchasing credits without any real due diligence or revealing which projects they bought from, and lack of government oversight of this largely unregulated market.

“It’s a very technical and complex topic so collaborating is the best way of working. My first investigation took eight months, the learning curve was very steep and I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it. We need to shorten that curve among us journalists,” Bermúdez told GIJN. “It also helps to partner with specialized organizations such as Carbon Market Watch and the Center for Climate Crime Analysis (CCCA), which helped us on several of our stories.”

Bermúdez said several of El CLIP’s stories started with either concerned community members or whistleblowers, many being former government officials frustrated with how offset projects are being implemented. Thinking about future stories, he suggested looking at oil and gas companies. “Evidence suggests they are one of the big buyers of offsets,” he added. “Are they relying on them to not reduce their production and instead just compensate?”

Additional Resources

Offsets Database (Offsets DB): Developed by the non-profit CarbonPlan, this tool collects and standardizes data about offset projects and offset credits issued by five of the largest offset registries. It sources the data directly from the registries.

GIJN Guide to Investigating Carbon Offsets: Toby McIntosh, senior advisor for GIJN’s Resource Center, wrote a useful guide for reporters on how to investigate carbon offsets. It includes plenty of practical tips and resources.

Voluntary Registry Offsets Database: The database, developed by the research program Berkeley Carbon Trading Project, contains all carbon offset projects listed globally by four major voluntary offset project registries.

Natural or ‘Green’ Gas

Natural gas is a fossil fuel consisting primarily of methane and the climate warming emissions created from burning it are lower than those from coal or oil, but higher than renewable energy sources such as solar or wind. However, this doesn’t tell the full story. Drilling and extracting gas and its transportation can result in the leakage of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 84-86 times more potent than CO₂ over 20 years.

A tanker docked at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility. Fossil fuel companies have attempted to rebrand LNG as a “green” gas. Image: Shutterstock

The fossil fuel industry and some countries support the use of natural gas as a transition fuel from coal instead of leapfrogging to renewables. This is questioned by scientists and civil society organizations who say that no further fossil fuel projects should be developed to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. Also, the cost of renewables is now lower than fossil fuels in many countries.

Nevertheless, the fossil industry plans to quadruple extraction from proven natural gas reserves by 2030 and invest $1.3 trillion in expanding the liquified natural gas (LNG) network. LNG is described by gas and oil companies as a way to lower emissions but one researcher says the greenhouse gas footprint for LNG is one-third greater than that for coal.

The industry is also supporting carbon offsetting projects to sell “green gas” but the projects have been controversial.

Key Questions

• Is the country’s transition from coal to gas lowering emissions? Could the country have instead leapfrogged to renewables?
• Is the fossil fuel industry using natural gas to delay an earlier transition to renewable energy? What strategies are they using to push for natural gas?
• What’s behind the claim of “green gas” of a utility company? How does the offsetting project behind it work? Is it actually bringing down emissions?
• What side effects are coming from expanding use of natural gas, such as higher methane emissions?

Case Studies

Behind the Push to Re-Brand LNG as ‘Green’. Journalists Andy Rowell and Amy Westervelt published an article in 2024 in Drilled about the push of LNG producers in the United States to rebrand LNG as green to increase their exports. They looked at an LNG industry group and went through social media posts, lobbying disclosures, and public documents.

The Green Gas Lie. Journalists Stella Hesch, Gesa Steeger, Max Donheiser and Simon Wörpel published an article in 2024 for CORRECTIV looking at claims of German gas providers about “climate neutral” gas. The journalists found that the gas was actually “linked to deforestation of supposedly protected forests and the expansion of gas-fired power stations.”

How the Gas Industry Aims to Rebrand as ‘Clean’ Energy to Appeal to Black and Latino Voters. Taylor Kate Brown, a freelance climate reporter, published an article in 2022 in the Guardian on how the gas industry is working to rebrand as “clean” energy to appeal to Black and Latino voters. She found a $10 million PR campaign launched by gas companies grouped under a lobby group called Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future. The lobby group and the involved companies either declined to comment or did not respond to Brown’s multiple requests for comment.

Tips and Resources

Sara Schonhardt, a journalist at E&E News, said in an interview that reporters should look at examples of places where gas is displacing coal, how this is happening and if it’s leading to emissions reductions. She also suggested looking at the gas deals that might be done on the side of the climate negotiations, considering the many lobbyists that attend.

“It’s important to engage across the board on this issue,” she said. “There’s meaning in talking with gas companies and knowing what they are thinking and from where they are coming from. Knowing their arguments can help to inject information and realism into your stories and counter their points of view. Too often the media can be very siloed.”

Amy Westervelt, speaking at the 2024 International Journalism Festival, said journalists should look at “enabling industries” such as public relations companies. These are hired by fossil giants to create a narrative towards natural gas, as Westervelt has shown in stories. She also suggested engaging with disillusioned employees from these industries.

Additional Resources

Global Energy Monitor: This non-profit develops and analyzes data on energy infrastructure, resources, and uses, including coal, gas and oil facilities, pipelines, LNG infrastructure and renewable energy projects.

Green Hydrogen

Green hydrogen is a zero-emission alternative to fossil fuels, created by using renewable electricity to separate hydrogen from water molecules. The only byproduct of this process is water vapor. While it has the potential to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors such as transportation and heavy industry, challenges remain over its feasibility and demand.

Each year, 75 million tons of hydrogen are produced worldwide, with the vast majority generated through processes that rely on fossil fuels. Hydrogen is usually classified in colors depending on its source of energy: gray (gas), brown (coal), and blue (captured emissions). Climate models show hydrogen will have a role to play in countries’ net-zero plans.

While interest in green hydrogen remains high, policy reports warn that investments aren’t happening at the initially expected speed and that demand remains unclear. This happens as fossil fuel companies promote blue hydrogen projects instead of green ones, accessing government subsidies and spending billions of dollars in lobbying.

Key Questions

• To what extent can green hydrogen bring down emissions? In which industries is it possible to expand its use? Is there a demand for more green hydrogen?
• When looking at specific hydrogen projects, what are their costs and benefits?
• Are governments providing any incentives for hydrogen projects? To what kind of hydrogen projects? Are those incentives similar for green and other types of hydrogen?
• What’s the environmental footprint of green hydrogen? How much water is being used for each project? Are communities OK with the project?

Case Studies

Chile Gambles on Green Hydrogen in the Far South. Yasna Mussa, a freelance reporter from Chile, wrote an article in 2024 for Dialogue Earth on Chile’s plan to create a green hydrogen industry and the risks posed for communities and the environment. Most of the green hydrogen infrastructure would be located in an area with valuable ecosystems and require significant water supplies in a country facing droughts.

The Dawn of the Clean Hydrogen Economy. Canary Media produced in 2024 a series on clean hydrogen. Their reporters looked at how the fossil industry wants to shape the new hydrogen economy and the serious demand problems that the industry is facing, challenging its feasibility. They also analyzed the role of e-fuels for ships and planes and the plans for hydrogen to be used in trains and trucks.

Mapping the Hydrogen Lobby. DeSmog has worked in 2021 and 2022 on a series focused on mapping the hydrogen lobby in North America and Europe. Their reporters have looked at the networks of companies, industry associations, lobbyists, and politicians with deep ties to the fossil fuel industry pushing for hydrogen expansion instead of less-polluting alternatives.

Tips and Resources

Sara Schonhardt from E&E News believes green hydrogen is often mentioned as a “blanket solution” without having a deeper discussion about what it really involves. “We need more unpacking on how big a solution it can be,” Schonhardt told GIJN, adding that while “there’s room” for green hydrogen to be used to bring down emissions from hard-to-abate sectors, “we could also be using other simpler and alternative solutions.”

Phoebe Cooke from DeSmog said the gas industry is repositioning itself as the hydrogen industry. “They are the same players that want to continue business as usual,” she said. “While we are going to need hydrogen to some degree, as reports show, the extent to which we rely on it might mean we end up missing climate targets.”

Both reporters suggested unpacking each hydrogen project to establish what kind of hydrogen it uses, regardless of how the company describes it. They also said it’s also useful to look at the people in the organizations that are pushing for a growing use of hydrogen as in many cases they come from the fossil fuel industry, creating a conflict of interests.

Additional Resources

International Energy Agency (IEA) Green Hydrogen Database: It covers all projects commissioned worldwide since 2000 to produce hydrogen for energy or climate change mitigation purposes.

Geoengineering

The fact that we are not reducing emissions as much as we should has triggered a growing interest in geoengineering, usually defined as the deliberate large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment to counteract climate change. This category includes controversial techniques to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere on a massive scale, known as Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), and to reflect sunlight away from the Earth.

The fact that we are not reducing emissions as much as we should has triggered a growing interest in geoengineering, usually defined as the deliberate large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment to counteract climate change. This category includes controversial techniques to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere on a massive scale, known as Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), and to reflect sunlight away from the Earth.

Examples include direct air capture (machines removing CO₂ directly from the air), bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (farming trees or crops to sequester CO₂ and then burning them to create energy while capturing the CO₂) and solar radiation management (reflecting sunlight away from the Earth’s surface before it warms the atmosphere).

The interest in these has raised a debate among scientists and governments, with some calling to shut down the research field and others saying we need to continue to investigate. Some activists and environmental groups have questioned geoengineering as a tactic of the fossil fuel industry to delay taking real action, with studies warning over the risk it poses to the natural world.

Key Questions

• What are the risks of implementing them? Who benefits and who would be affected?
• What happens if a project goes wrong? Who will be held accountable and how?
• Who is behind, politically and economically, the geoengineering technologies?

Case Studies

The Promise and Peril of Solar Geoengineering. Jeremy Hance, a senior correspondent for Mongabay, looked at solar geoengineering and why some are pushing for it while others are warning about its risks. He mentioned examples from different countries and spoke with a wide array of researchers, companies and campaigners. In a part two of the story, he also looked at the gap between researchers about the technology.

Geoengineering in Latin America May Create More Problems Than It Solves. Matías Avramow, a freelance reporter from Mexico based in Argentina, wrote an article in 2023 in Dialogue Earth looking at the growing momentum behind geoengineering in Latin America. He reviewed active projects in the region and the risks behind them, analyzed the role of governments behind the projects and looked at how research is advancing.

Startups Want to Cool Earth by Reflecting Sunlight. There Are Few Rules and Big Risks. Julia Simon, the Climate Solutions reporter on NPR’s Climate Desk, published a story in 2024 looking at startups working on solar geoengineering in the United States. She traveled to Silicon Valley for a test run of the technology and reviewed how the industry is expanding without much regulation, raising risks to the global weather because of its use.

Tips and Resources

James Fahn, executive director of the Earth Journalism Network (EJN), advised journalists in an article on GJIN’s website to investigate the development of the geoengineering industry and the closed-door deals that may already be taking place. “Who knows what desperate measures countries may turn to if some of the most dire predictions come to pass,” he wrote.

Some areas of interest include looking at who is behind the technologies being promoted, including any potential links with the fossil industry, and analyzing the consequences of pursuing those. Journalists could also review the accountability questions behind geoengineering, considering there is no regulatory framework for its use yet.

Additional Resources

Geoengineering Map: This interactive map on geoengineering, prepared by the research group ETC Group and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, documents projects from around the world, with information on each one.

Fermín Koop is a reporter from Argentina specialized in the environment and climate change. Based in Buenos Aires, he is the Latin America managing editor at Dialogue Earth. He is the co-founder of Claves21, a network of environmental reporters in Latin America, and a university professor of journalism. He has been a fellow and trainer at 10 COP climate change conferences with the Earth Journalism Network (EJN), also engaging in several other training opportunities with EJN. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism (Argentina), a postgraduate degree in climate change (Argentina) and a master’s degree in environment and development (United Kingdom), obtained through the Chevening Scholarships.