Nearly half of the $23.7m (£21m) large oil and gas companies spent on Google advertising have targeted search terms on environmental sustainability, according to a new report.
These are the conclusions drawn by a team of researchers with the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a US nonprofit group that studies disinformation online.
The team examined more than 32,000 search ads on Google's US site paid for by five major fossil fuel companies – ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, Shell, and Aramco – and targeting 61,000 different climate-related queries over the past two years.
The scientists' goal was to understand how search engines could be used to downplay the industry's impact on global warming.
The nonprofit's findings, published in its latest report, stressed that Google has been permitting oil firms to downplay their role in climate change through its search adverts, despite the search engine giant pledging it would stop taking...