Beware of False Prophets & Maintaining Profits
Hope has been in short supply in recent years, with the twin threats of the Climate Crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic ravaging even the most optimistic of outlooks.
It is only natural, therefore, that we grasp any good news with both hands and cling onto that warm sense of hope whenever we can. However, our eagerness for positivity can make us blind to the reality of the news cycle – something that is fundamental to the growing industry of greenwashing.
Greenwashing, for those who are unaware, is the process of passing off a product or a brand as one that is ethical and ecologically-minded, when in reality they are using marketing to smokescreen the true extent of the environmental harm that their business causes.
Today we look at how greenwashing is used to give false hope, how it worsens the Climate Crisis, and the role the media has to play in addressing this growing phenomenon.
The Jaguar Paradox
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has gained a wealth of international coverage today by announcing that it will be “electric-only” from 2025, following a revision of its business model by its new Chief Executive.
What many articles don’t make clear is that the majority of cars that will be made by JLR will continue to be harmful hybrids until 2036, and that only the Jaguar marque will be going fully-electric from 2025.
This is an incredibly important distinction, as the JLR Group have hidden the bad news behind the good news. This is greenwashing.
In this particular instance, the good news is that all cars with a Jaguar badge will be battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from 2025. This will mean that these cars will no longer produce emissions that are harmful to humans and which worsen the Climate Crisis.
The bad news is that the majority of cars produced by the JLR Group will still be internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles – as hybrids are another form of ICE – and therefore, these vehicles will continue to worsen the Climate Crisis and will continue to emit harmful pollutants that are responsible for one in five deaths.
This graph demonstrates just how drastic our action on the Climate Crisis needs to be if we are to avert the worst-case outcomes. Credit: IPCC
It is also important to understand that the types of cars produced by the JLR Group wary between brands. Those that the Land Rover side produce tend to be heavier SUVs – the kind that are leading to the highest rise in emissions around the world right now.
Few media outlets have been clear about this important distinction in their headlines, let alone in their articles.
And so the cycle of disinformation continues.
Media Accountability
As a former PR myself, I understand how the industries of public relations and the press interact.
In the post-digital age, most journalists and publications have daily quotas for posting a minimum number of articles and the focus is on those that will drive the highest levels of engagement so that they can justify advertiser spend on their site.
Electrification of vehicles is crucial to reducing harmful emissions that worsen the Climate Crisis and human health. While some might tout hybrids and hydrogen, as a solution, EVs are the only way forward for passenger cars due to their high efficiency. Credit: Transport & Environment
This is a goldmine for PR professionals, as a well-written press release that has been designed to be read as if were an independent article can be copy and pasted from an email into the site and published in a matter of minutes.
This is how PR and media work now. Little of what you read on a daily basis hasn’t at least been influenced to some degree by a person working in PR.
Of course, the impact of this is that there is less scrutiny of the brands behind these press releases, and it is much easier for them to position their key messages in a way that will best suit them. For example, it would be very easy to write a press release which casually conflates the individual brand of Jaguar with the collective Jaguar Land Rover Group so that they all bask in the same praise about, say, going “fully electric”.
While this might seem needlessly critical of JRL, it is worth bearing in mind that in 2017 they announced that they would only sell EVs and hybrids from 2020 onwards - a promise that they have not kept.
We can see the same approach being taken by General Motors.
This is why a free and fair press is so important. And so rare.
Of course, this extends far beyond how the media reports on brand announcements. The way in which cars are reported on in general; with most journalists focusing on meaningless metrics like horsepower and torque, rather than those stats that impact the real world, such as emissions.
See our previous article Media Accountability: Cars & Climate Change for more on this.
In the future, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that we will look back on automotive manufacturers in the same way that we now consider the tobacco industry – an antiquated, harmful industry that used the media to sow disinformation about the health and ecological implications of their products until the damage was already done.
Legislation Works
And now back to that glimmer of hope – which we’re sure this article has nearly extinguished (sorry about that).
Today’s Jaguar announcement has served to demonstrate one incredibly important thing: that legislation works.
As previously reported, car manufacturers have been pooling their fleets in order to avoid paying fines for the harmful emissions that their vehicles create. This is a highly deceptive practice that helps them diminish their ecological responsibly – but, as of the end of 2020, their emissions levels are now locked in and have to be actively reduced.
In fact, JLR is one of the few manufacturers that missed its emissions targets and will face a substantial fine as a result – a fine that will increase each year that they fail to hit their targets. While we do not yet know the value of the fine that JLR will face, we do know that the VW Group have been hit with a €150m charge for their similar failure to meet these vital targets.
The transport sector is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland. With a higher percentage of diesel vehicles than our neighbours, we produce a higher level of harmful emissions including methane and NOx.
It is no coincidence that Jaguar has made this announcement just a few short weeks after missing its emissions targets. Their brand is already facing a financial crisis before factoring in any fines, and the pressure from EU emissions targets and multiple governments banning the sale of new ICEs from 2030 means that they have to change to survive.
This legislation – alongside greater pressure from consumers for brands to be more ethical and sustainable – is working.
It also highlights the need for greater legislation against hybrid vehicles to avoid automotive manufacturers from exploiting loopholes to keep selling ICEs after they are banned.
Keep that glimmer of hope alive, but we wary of false prophets who put profits above all else.
What To Read Next
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