Greenpeace activists gathered in front of a Shell Oil refinery Monday in the Dutch city of Rotterdam to protest “greenwashing” in fossil fuel advertising.

The dozens of activists seek a similar advertising ban as the tobacco industry. Environmentalist have long criticized the oil industry over climate change concerns.

Greenpeace conducted a report released on Sunday that accuses major energy companies of “greenwashing” in advertisements. The report suggests that fossil fuel companies’ initiatives to promote “climate-friendly” solutions are “false climate solutions” only to still promote the fossil fuel company.

“We can confidently say that all the companies in the dataset are greenwashing, as their advertisements do not accurately reflect their business activities — either through an over-emphasis on their ‘green’ activities, or an under-emphasis on their fossil fuel activities,” the report by Greenpeace said.

The protest led to the arrest of 22 activists and 32 of them were also issued with fines, police said.

The protests come one month before a United Nations climate summit, COP26, in Glasgow. The summit is intended to reduce global warming. Protestors are aiming to get legislation passed in Europe that would block large fossil fuel companies from promoting their business to help tackle global warming.

“This legislation would increase public awareness of products and technologies that are responsible for climate change and other environmental and health harms,” Greenpeace said.

RELATED STORIES