Fossil fuel companies operating in Australia and their industry associations have been swapping notes with their international counterparts as part of a global fight to stop a phaseout of gas in homes, according to a new analysis.
InfluenceMap, a UK-based climate thinktank, examined industry campaigns in at least three different countries to reverse engineer the strategies used by industry to blunt new policy proposals.
In one example the group looked at how fossil fuel producers, services firms and business advocacy bodies in Australia have attacked Victoria’s gas substitution roadmap, and similar campaigns in Europe and the US to stop the phaseout of gas-heating in homes and gas cooktops.
It found there was a common “toolbox of tactics” that involved “narrative driven message, coordination of campaigns and front groups to broad the policy agenda, and direct policymaker engagement and legal action to influence the final ambition of building policies.”
“This playbook enables industry to dictate the policymaking agenda to lock in the long-term role of fossil fuels in the buildings sector,” it said.
Emilia Piziak, a senior analyst at Influence Map and co-author of the report said industry had been “using the same tried and tested narratives for decades” as these have been “wildly successful”.
“They have no reason to do any different,” Piziak said. “When it comes to pushing for fossil fuels in the energy mix, we know that the oil and gas industry are not operating in regional silos, but they appear to be capitalising on the fact that policymakers are.”
“It is significant to see the oil and gas industry using similar tactics across jurisdictions to obstruct the electrification of buildings, particularly given past evidence of coordinated opposition through industry groups such as the International Gas Union.
InfluenceMap’s research has shown The International Gas Union (ICU) has been responsible for developing strategies with individual members and companies working to “strategically tailor” the specifics to the region where they operated.
One leaked IGU strategy document, for instance, advised members in 2021 not to engage directly with critical reporting, advising them to “adopt a mindset of indirectly countering detractors; and directly encouraging neutral voices and engaging allies.”
Another document suggested members should: “operationalise and formalise institutional relationships and partnerships with influential stakeholders”.
InfluenceMap tracked how industry messaging – referred to by the IGU in some documents as “global themes” – evolved across regions by tracing what regionally-specific industry groups and companies said in public. It also noted only one company, Shell, held membership in the most obstructive industry associations.
Though individual talking points could be mixed and matched, the most common line of attack from industry in Victoria involved emphasising how any phaseout of gas connections in new homes threatened “energy security and affordability”.
This was in contrast to the US, where the most common talking point was “consumer choice”, and the EU, where lobbyists favoured a focus on “technology neutral” policies.
The Victorian state government has become a favourite target for fossil fuel producers and their industry associations over a plan to reduce the state’s reliance on gas and end gas connections in new homes.
Gas cooktops only represent 1.5% of Victoria’s gas consumption, but the plan alarmed gas industry figures aware that taking gas out of Australian homes will make industry politically vulnerable as their product becomes increasingly removed from people’s lives.
With a little over two thirds of Victorian homes reliant on gas for heating and cooking, the state government announced in December last year it was beginning consultation on the next step of its phaseout plan.
In September, however, the Victorian state government said it would only end gas connections in new homes, not existing homes as it sought to encourage residents with gas cooktops to switch using incentives.
InfluenceMap’s report suggests this decision was the product of political lobbying by the industry, but the state government’s decision was widely read as a political manoeuvre around industry efforts to start a culture war over the fate of gas cooktops.
Dr Kate Wylie, Executive Director of Doctors for the Environment Australia compared efforts by oil and gas producers to fight a managed phaseout to earlier by the tobacco industry, saying the report highlighted the extent to which companies were unconcerned about the potential for harm.
“Money is a great motivator and unfortunately if someone’s putting a sack of gold in your hand or crossing your palm with silver, people will take it,” she said.
“What we fundamentally know is that coal, oil and gas, over the course of its lifecycle from exploration and the point of extraction, to use, combustion and waste, is hazardous to human health, every step of the way.”
The Australian gas industry has known since at least 1972 that burning gas generates nitrogen dioxide that may cause breathing problems. At that time the industry was directly involved in driving an earlier energy transition to switch “Town Gas” for natural gas.
Australia’s gas companies, then represented by the Australian Gas Association, learned about the issues from their counterparts in the US, including the American Gas Association.
The association’s Chief Technical Officer, Hans Hartmann, acknowledged the problem in an article published in the Australian Gas Journal in 1972 where he said waste gasses produced from burning gas, in “low levels” had a “deleterious effects on the physical performance of healthy individuals”.
“As a doctor, I have a responsibility to behave ethically. We get taught about this in med school: do no harm. And yet these people are doing harm and getting away with it,” Wylie said. “They’ve known for decades, but they’ve continued to peddle their harmful product.”
“Let’s put our health first for once.”
