An advertisement by Australia’s gas lobby has been taken off the airwaves after it was found to mislead viewers with environmental claims.
The television campaign, aired in June and run by the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA), claimed natural gas is “50 percent cleaner” and “together with renewables it gets emissions down”.
A complaint to Australia’s advertising watchdog argued that although gas was “scientifically slightly less bad” than some other coal and oil energy sources, the blanket statement of “50 percent cleaner” was unacceptable.
“It is a blanket and misleading statement that gas is ‘green’, when in truth the exploration, extraction, transport, processing and logistics of gas are very damaging to the environment and emit a lot of greenhouse gas—especially methane,” the complainant said….