The fossil fuel and anti-renewable lobbies are still spending big on Meta platforms, completely overwhelming the efforts of the clean energy industry and dominating the narrative on social media ahead if key state elections in coming months.
Renew Economy reported last month that fossil fuel interests spend almost $553,000 on political advertising on Meta over the course of 30 days, according to that company’s ad library. That completely outgunned the efforts of the pro-renewable sector, which spent just a few thousand dollars.
New analysis over a 90-day period from early July to early October confirms that trend. A total of 12 fossil fuel and anti-renewables groups spent $1.2 million on Meta ads specifically mentioning energy.
In response just six renewable energy companies and one lobby group put ads on Meta platforms, but they spent just 1 per cent of the amount that the 12 kicked in over the same period.
Scroll down to see the detailed analysis of who is spending on Meta political or social ads.
It’s a surprising result, given that a potentially bruising state election in Victoria is just six weeks away, planning processes such as town hall meetings are being hijacked by opponents, and polls are delivering mixed messages that while Australians want renewables, they are putting it at the bottom of the list of priorities.
Renew Economy’s first article on the Meta spending trends sparked considerable debate within the renewables industry. We were told that at a clean energy summit held in Canberra last month, pollster Kos Samaras warned the industry that it was “getting beaten up” on social media by fossil fuel and anti-renewable interests.
But unlike the fossil fuel sector, which realised decades ago that social licence could be a business killer, the renewables sector is still hesitant to take off the gloves, leaving the advocacy to environmental and other left-wing groups, who also have other topics on their mind.
SEC Newgate’s Mood of the Nation September 2026 survey, which showed action on renewables falling in the priority list by eight places from the same time in 2025. Image: SEC Newgate
Meta owns Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Messenger and the Twitter-like Threads, and publishes a report showing which organisations are spending what on “social issues, elections or politics.”
The discrepancy between what the fossil fuel industry is spending on the social media giant and what the renewables sector is spending is stark.
Over the 90-day period, 51 organisations and individuals who want to see less mining for coal, oil or gas and more clean energy spent $635,000 specifically on energy-related ads.
Most of these are politicians and government departments (12), a big showing of community and environmental groups (19), and five solar-battery companies who’ve been caught in Meta’s transparency net while advertising their services.
Seven large-scale renewables organisations spent a total of $12,320. Acciona, Iberdrola and Westwind Energy all posted ads captured by the transparency report on their own account, along with the Clean Energy Council.
Interestingly, three developers are running ads to promote, and defend, their wind projects: Fera Australia for its Strathbogie Ranges project, Vestas on behalf of the Winterbourne project, and Stromlo for its Pines wind project which the Oberon Against Wind Towers group continues to rail against.
Together, the seven organisations’ spending was not quite a fifth of what anti-transmission group Farmers Fightback spent over the same period.
Renew Economy tallied all of the advertisers tagged in the Meta Ad Library over the last three months – all 4,612 of them – between July 12 and October 9.
These ads are those that are either declared, or have been caught in Meta’s political and social issues transparency report in the last 90 days.
This report shows how much is being spent on Facebook, Instagram ads that have a political angle. It does not include other ads that don’t fall into that category.
Of this mass of ad spending – on everything from a Donald Trump Jr fan club to the Mindful Drinking Society – we found 63 organisations, platforms and individuals that ran relevant ads about energy in the last three months.
While the headline numbers tell one grim story of a sector possibly ignoring a growing threat, delving into the detail produces several others.
Elections are a-coming
State elections in Victoria and New South Wales (NSW) are just six and 22 weeks away respectively, and it appears that politicians are playing very small target on energy
In Victoria, only a handful of Labor candidates are giving Meta cash to advertise federal Labor’s solar sharer offer. Notably, former energy minister Lily D’Ambrosio has maintained a strong presence in the ad listings to support her party, but with nothing related to her former portfolio.
Federal independents and the Greens party are mainly focused on pushing for higher taxes on gas exports.
Even One Nation, National and Liberal candidates are spending their Meta ad money on other issues. These parties are, however, waging a persuasive campaign against renewable energy.
One Nation is hitching its wagon to fire and brimstone campaigns against renewables in regional Victorian and the Coalition is doing its bit by promising to cancel VNI West and review the Western Renewables Link (WRL) transmission projects and bring back merit appeals after projects have been approved.
With polls pointing to a majority win for the Coalition, the renewable energy sector is keeping its head down in Victoria and staying well out of the fight, at least in social media ad spending terms.
Five solar and battery installers however were keen to promote their services for both the federal Cheaper Home Battery rebate and for commercial and industrial solar after New South Wales (NSW) cut the cost of these by up to 40 per cent.
Cashed up and vocal
Not many pro-fossil fuel, anti-renewables organisations were caught in Meta’s transparency categories in the last three months. But the ones that were are cashed up.
The Farmers Fightback, the Minerals Council of Australia-owned Hands off Our Fuel, and Affordable Energy Australia, a “strategic campaign engine” owned by pro-nuclear group Coalition for Conservation, are all pure-play activist groups.
Farmers Fightback spent nothing in the last seven days, but over the last month has poured almost $11,000 into Meta ads. The organisation claims it is entirely funded by individual donations.
The trio’s ads are purely aimed at convincing an audience to oppose Victorian transmission projects, oppose the removal of fuel tax credits for miners, and advocate for non-renewable-based energy.
Their clean energy equivalents are the likes of Lock the Gate Alliance and Your Shout Gas, but neither are big spenders.
Other fossil fuel organisations, such as Australian Energy Producers, Shell, Coal Australia, and coal company Hunter Valley Operations, are using social media advertising to burnish their reputations as community players, or as providers of essential services.
| Page name | Disclaimer/owner | $ spent July 12 – October 9 | Total number of ads | Proportion of energy-related ads |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Energy Producers | Australian Energy Producers | $489,408 | 1242 | All |
| Shell | Shell | $325,667 | 84 | All |
| Minerals Council of Australia* | Minerals Council of Australia | $259,147 | 217 | ~22 |
| Hands Off Our Fuel | Minerals Council of Australia | $113,639 | 201 | All |
| Farmers Fightback | Farmers Fightback | $65,515 | 8 | All |
| Coal Australia | Coal Australia | $20,500 | 4 | All |
| Hands Off Our Fuel | These ads ran without a disclaimer | $5,095 | 14 | All |
| BHP | BHP | $4,805 | 12 | All |
| Oberon Against Wind Towers | Oberon Against Wind Towers | 1,773 | 10 | All |
| Affordable Energy Australia | Affordable Energy Australia | $999 | 44 | All |
| Hunter Valley Operations | These ads ran without a disclaimer | $659 | 1 | All |
| Nuclear for Australia | These ads ran without a disclaimer | $32 | 3 | All |
| Total | $1,287,239 | 1,840 | 1,645 |
* Combining two entries.
Fossilised dollar not the same as a green one
Not all ad dollars are equal however, as Parents for Climate Action CEO Nic Seton pointed out in a recent Solar Insiders podcast.
Where fossil fuel-funded activist groups can spend on pure-play targeted ads, environmental groups such as Greenpeace must achieve two goals: provoke action and raise donations.
Furthermore, while almost all of the pro-fossil fuel interests were spending all of their cash on the one message, the organisations promoting clean energy or opposing coal and gas were also promoting other messages.
It means the headline numbers aren’t actually what is being spent.
A casual glance would suggest spending on anti-renewable energy, pro-fossil fuel ads almost hit $1.3 million and environmental groups weren’t far behind with $1.1 million.
But not all of the almost 6,500 ads posted in the last three months by groups talking about energy were in fact about energy.
Only about a quarter of Greenpeace’s ads were about energy, and only about half of those by The Australia Institute.
In fact, while there were fewer groups spending more money on pro-fossil, anti-renewable energy ads, almost all of these were on topic, working out to be $1.2 million.
Just 60 per cent of the ads from environmentally-focused organisations and individuals were focused on energy, meaning just $635,000 went on that topic.
| Page name | Disclaimer/owner | $ spent July 12 – October 9 | Total number of ads | Proportion of energy-related ads |
| Greenpeace Australia Pacific | Greenpeace Australia Pacific | $439,494 | 1344 | 394 |
| The Australia Institute | The Australia Institute | $177,174 | 558 | ~270 |
| Australian Conservation Foundation | Australian Conservation Foundation | $97,508 | 561 | All |
| Victoria Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action | Victoria Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action | $24,495 | 3 | All |
| Environment Centre NT | Environment Centre NT | $22,990 | 127 | All |
| Lock The Gate Alliance | Lock The Gate Alliance | $21,678 | 124 | All |
| Your Shout Gas | Your Shout Gas | $21,335 | 70 | All |
| Rewiring Australia | Rewiring Australia | $20,505 | 183 | All |
| Save the Burrup – Save our Songlines | Save Our Songlines | $19,273 | 68 | All |
| Eden Foster MP | Eden Foster MP [Labor, Victoria] | $18,976 | 15 | 1 |
| It’s Not A Race 2025 | It’s Not A Race | $16,248 | 5 | 1 |
| Engineers Australia | Engineers Australia | $14,984 | 22 | 1 |
| Allegra Spender | Allegra Spender [Federal, independent] | $14,968 | 62 | 3 |
| Independent News | Climate 200 | $14,916 | 124 | 1 |
| Greens MPs | Greens MPs | $14,631 | 74 | All |
| Nature NSW | Nature Conservation Council of NSW | $14,270 | 46 | 1 |
| Parents for Climate | Parents for Climate | $12,265 | 355 | All |
| Environment Victoria | Environment Victoria | $12,223 | 43 | All |
| Josh Bull MP for Sunbury | Josh Bull MP for Sunbury [Labor, Victoria] | $10,519 | 15 | 2 |
| Bronwyn Halfpenny MP | Bronwyn Halfpenny MP [Labor, Victoria] | $10,020 | 14 | 1 |
| Dr Sophie Scamps | Sophie Scamps [Federal, independent] | $9,416 | 71 | 8 |
| Environs Kimberley | Environs Kimberley | $7,609 | 20 | 11 |
| Acciona AU & NZ | ACCIONA Australia | $7,097 | 10 | All |
| Friends Of Australian Rock Art | Friends Of Australian Rock Art | $6,579 | 66 | All |
| The Greens NSW | The Greens NSW | $6,261 | 119 | 14 |
| Jaclyn Symes | Jaclyn Symes MP [Labor, Victoria] | $6,248 | 8 | 1 |
| Zali Steggall | Zali Steggall [Federal, independent] | $5,248 | 121 | 17 |
| Conservation Council of WA | Conservation Council of Western Australia (CCWA) | $4,423 | 26 | 17 |
| The Climate Council | The Climate Council | $4,153 | 94 | All |
| Solutions for Climate WA | Solutions for Climate WA | $3,100 | 36 | All |
| The Australian Greens | The Australian Greens | $2,951 | 63 | 1 |
| East Coast Electrical & Solar | These ads ran without a disclaimer | $2,376 | 1 | All |
| Iberdrola Australia | Iberdrola Australia | $1,520 | 3 | All |
| Strathbogie Ranges Wind Farm | Fera Australia | $1,322 | 66 | All |
| Clean Energy Council | Clean Energy Council Limited | $916 | 7 | All |
| Winterbourne Wind Farm | Winterbourne Wind Farm | $752 | 45 | All |
| The Pines Wind Farm | The Pines Wind Farm | $707 | 41 | All |
| Podium Solar | These ads ran without a disclaimer | $395 | 2 | All |
| Australian Security Leaders Climate Group | Australian Security Leaders Climate Group | $181 | 2 | 1 |
| Reality of Nuclear Plants | Reality of Nuclear Plants | $155 | 11 | All |
| Mining & Energy Union | Mining & Energy Union | $143 | 4 | All |
| Western Power | These ads ran without a disclaimer | $131 | 3 | All |
| Surfers for Climate | Surfers for Climate | $100 | 1 | All |
| Western Australia: State of Energy | These ads ran without a disclaimer | $96 | 1 | All |
| National Sustainability Festival | National Sustainability Festival | $99 | 2 | All |
| Hanwha Sustainability | These ads ran without a disclaimer | $37 | 1 | All |
| Macquarie Energy | These ads ran without a disclaimer | $27 | 1 | All |
| Vantage Commercial Energy | These ads ran without a disclaimer | $18 | 1 | All |
| Australian Battery Solar and Energy Solutions | These ads ran without a disclaimer | $16 | 1 | All |
| WestWind Energy – Australia | WestWind Energy | $6 | 2 | All |
| International Conference on Sustainable Energy – ICUE | These ads ran without a disclaimer | $5 | 1 | All |
| Total | $1,070,559 | 4,643 | 2,753 |
