Big oil and climate change: An ecolinguistic perspective

In the context of the ever-worsening climate crisis, the global debate around fossil fuels is keener than ever. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Press Release of 20 March 2023 stated: “In 2018, IPCC highlighted the unprecedented scale of the challenge required to keep warming to 1.5°C. Five years later, that challenge has become even greater due to a continued increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The pace and scale of what has been done so far, and current plans, are insufficient to tackle climate change.” Against this background, this paper investigates the discourse of oil giant TotalEnergies in its report “More Energy, Less Emissions: Sustainability & Climate 2024 Progress Report”. The paper throws an ecolinguistic light on one of the main drivers of climate change, and explores the extent to which such a report may represent an instance of greenwashing. The aim of the study is to reveal linguistic strategies that enable such companies - who have played, and continue to play the most significant role in producing global warming - to present themselves as agents for environmental good. From the critical, discourse-historical perspective, the paper highlights the circulation in government, environmental, corporate and public contexts of both positive and destructive discourses. The findings appear to support the greenwashing hypothesis; the paper thus contributes to the growing tradition of ecolinguistic studies that expose the role of (corporate) language in perpetuating situations of environmental harm.