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Cases / Lobbying, PR and greenwashing · Egypt · 2005–2025

Hill & Knowlton and Edelman: PR for fossil fuel clients and climate summits

Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
Not on record
  • The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
What the record lacks: 3 insufficient · 1 not measured See the gaps

Hill & Knowlton handled communications for the COP27 climate summit in Egypt in 2022 while serving oil companies, and more than 420 scientists asked it to drop its fossil fuel clients. Edelman has held a contract with the American Petroleum Institute and won a COP30 contract in Brazil, so the question is which clients these firms serve while shaping public climate messaging.

What?
Hill & Knowlton managed communications for the COP27 climate summit in Egypt in 2022, and Edelman has held contracts with the American Petroleum Institute and Brazil's COP30 summit. openDemocracy
Where?
Egypt (COP27), Brazil (COP30), and the United States and Canada (American Petroleum Institute work) DeSmog
When?
Edelman's American Petroleum Institute contract ran from 2005 to 2016; COP27 work in 2022; COP30 contract in 2025. DeSmog
Who?
Gained
  • Hill & Knowlton — COP27 communications work; clients included ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron and Saudi Aramco openDemocracy
  • Edelman — American Petroleum Institute contract, 2005 to 2016; 835,000-dollar COP30 contract in 2025 DeSmog
Lost
None on record
Harmed
None on record
Why?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
How?
Paid communications and advertising contracts with fossil fuel companies and industry groups. DeSmog
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

Egypt gave the COP27 climate summit's communications to Hill & Knowlton in 2022, and the firm's clients included ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron and Saudi Aramco, according to openDemocracy.

A letter from more than 420 scientists asked the firm to drop its fossil fuel clients, DeSmog reported on 4 November 2022.

DeSmog reported that Edelman's contract with the American Petroleum Institute, from 2005 to 2016, made up more than 10 percent of its revenue in 2010.

Edelman won an 835,000-dollar contract from Brazil's COP30 summit in 2025, in the same period in which it worked for Shell, Petrobras and Chevron, according to DeSmog.

    In court and with insurers

    Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

    Lawsuits and rulings

    No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.

    Insurers

    No insurer decision on record.

    What we don't know

    Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.

    Nature

    • Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.

    Record

    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: Edelman's 2014 plan for TransCanada, reported as leaked, proposed distracting opponents and setting up front groups, and Edelman's 2015 pledge not to work with climate deniers (DeSmog, 26 November 2014).
    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: Brulle and Werthman's 2021 finding that more than 600 PR firms worked on climate politics from 1988 to 2020, with about a third of that work in the largest 25 firms.
    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: that Hill & Knowlton is owned by WPP, and that Edelman is the world's largest PR company and a family business.

    Did the harm stop?

    Not stated in the sources reviewed.

    Who paid?

    Not stated in the sources reviewed.

    Sources

    Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations— Communities and civil society— Researchers

    Press and investigations

    Connected cases

    Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
    Terms used on this page

    Law and courts

    Arbitration
    A private dispute process in which an appointed arbitrator, instead of a court, decides the case.

    Insurance

    Premium
    The price paid for an insurance policy.
    Underwriter
    An insurer, or a person at an insurer, who assesses a risk and decides whether and on what terms to insure it.
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