A Portuguese version of this story was published by Climainfo.

Prince William’s prestigious climate prize hired a Brazilian public relations firm that was also under contract to the country’s state oil company Petrobras, which is facing criticism for its plans to drill in the Amazon basin, DeSmog can reveal.

The Earthshot Prize, backed by celebrities including naturalist David Attenborough and former England football captain David Beckham, worked with this PR agency, LLYC Brasil, to publicise Earthshot’s annual award ceremony, scheduled to take place in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday.

At the same time as it worked with Earthshot, LLYC Brasil held a contract with Petrobras to help run communications in the event of a reputational crisis, according to contract details published by the oil giant under Brazil’s transparency laws. LLYC Brasil says on its website that it has a team that specializes in “oil and gas, and energy generation and distribution industries,” and lists two other Brazilian fossil fuel producers as former clients.

A growing movement of activists, industry insiders, political and civic leaders, and scientists is demanding that the advertising and public relations industry cut ties with fossil fuel clients such as Petrobras, arguing that sophisticated messaging campaigns promoting the interests of major polluters are clearing the way for new oil and gas projects adding fuel to climate breakdown. 

Brazilian regulators last month approved Petrobras’ plans to drill an exploratory well in the Foz Do Amazonas, a vast stretch of water with rare coral reefs off the coast of the Amazon rainforest, despite years of opposition by environmentalists and Indigenous groups to the plan.

Brazil’s oil industry is ramping up production to record levels — on track to rise from the seventh-largest to the fourth-largest oil producer in the world by 2030. 

“An initiative as influential as the Earthshot Prize could be sending the right signal and driving positive change by choosing suppliers that can deliver on its message with integrity, but it’s doing the opposite,” said Lucy von Sturmer, executive director of ad industry campaign group Creatives for Climate. “More than any other client or brand out there, this is a massive missed opportunity.”

Brazil’s government has also faced criticism for choosing New York-headquartered Edelman — the world’s largest independent PR firm, and a longtime major partner of the fossil fuel industry — as its communications agency for the latest annual round of U.N. climate negotiations starting in the Brazilian city of Belém next week, known as COP30.

LLYC Brasil declined to respond to questions on the nature of its relationship with Petrobras, saying it does not comment on client contracts. LLYC Brasil added that it only works “with organizations that explicitly uphold [environmental, social, governance] standards and share our commitment to respecting and promoting…sustainability, and environmental protection.”

In response to a detailed list of questions from DeSmog about its relationship with LLYC Brasil, an Earthshot Prize spokesperson said: “We only partner with organisations with strict corporate commitments to sustainability.” 

Prince William’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Petrobras declined to comment on the details of its relationship with LLYC Brasil, beyond pointing DeSmog to the contract details published on its website. 

‘Driven by Profit‘

The Earthshot Prize is one of Prince William’s highest-profile projects. At the ceremony, a star-studded 13-person judging panel that includes actor Cate Blanchett and Jordan’s Queen Rania will award £1 million prizes to five winners proposing solutions to the world’s biggest climate challenges.

Prince William has framed the award ceremony as a curtain raiser to COP30. “I think Brazil really epitomises where the prize needs to land. The culture of Brazil, the fact we’ve got COP30 there,” William said in a video announcing Brazil as the location of this year’s award ceremony.

The video also featured the Prince’s celebrity friends such as Beckham celebrating Brazil’s unique Amazonian region and its Indigenous communities. 

Christiana Figueres, chair of the board of Earthshot trustees and an architect of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, told the BBC, that “to have the prize come in just before COP brings attention to Earthshot. It is win-win for both COP and Earthshot.” 

LLYC Brasil has handled Earthshot’s publicity in Brazil since at least April, according to social media posts from Earthshot’s communications team. LLYC Brasil’s contract with Petrobras ran from 2019 until July 29 this year, overlapping with the PR firm’s work for Earthshot by at least four months.

LLYC Brasil has provided “reputation management” services to Petrobras since at least 2009, according to employee LinkedIn profiles, industry award listings, and articles in the PR industry trade press. The firm also lists oil and gas producers Carmo Energy and Origem Energia as former clients on its website. Both companies plan to increase fossil fuel production four-fold by 2030.

Campaigners said the fact that LLYC Brasil was under contract to Petrobras and Earthshot at the same time was “in direct opposition” to Earthshot’s values. Their criticism reflects wider concerns that public relations agencies are escaping scrutiny for their work burnishing the image of polluters, even from their own climate-focused clients.

“Companies are driven by profit, and there’s nothing more profitable than working for both sides of a battle,” said Brazilian geographer and climate influencer Bruno Araujo.

Petrobras has sought to ward off criticism in the run-up to COP30, by hiring a squad of climate and science social media influencers to burnish its green image — despite the company’s plans to invest more than $97 billion in its oil and gas business in the next four years. 

There is no suggestion of any link between LLYC Brasil and the influencer campaign.

‘The Right Choices’

In some instances, green-minded organisations have walked away from agency contracts because of climate conflicts.

The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative abruptly ended its relationship with New York-based Havas Red in September 2023, after news broke that its French parent company, Havas, had won a major contract with Shell. The following year, B Lab, the project that oversees a responsible business certification known as B Corp, stripped four Havas agencies of that certification over the Shell contract.

Clean Creatives, an advocacy group, has documented more than 1,000 contracts between fossil fuel companies and firms across the advertising and public relations industry. Subsidiaries of the global conglomerates that dominate the industry, such as London-based WPP and New York-based rival Omnicom, held a large proportion.

Many leaders of smaller independent agencies are adamant that their firms can succeed without working for the fossil fuel industry, however. Clean Creatives says 1,500 agencies have signed its pledge not to work with oil and gas clients.

“The climate transition is humanity’s greatest contemporary challenge,” said Rodrigo Cunha, CEO of Brazilian public relations agency Profile, as well as “a moment that will demand coherence and the right choices.” Profile has said it will not work with the fossil fuel industry. 

“It’s important to investigate agencies’ portfolios to understand what they are promoting.”

Broken Pledge

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has called on called on advertising and public relations agencies to drop their oil and gas clients, describing industry executives as “Mad Men fuelling the madness”. Guterres has also said governments should ban fossil fuel advertising.

Big agencies have said they would be more careful about the projects they take on in recent years, but their climate-friendly rhetoric hasn’t always been backed by action. 

A DeSmog investigation revealed that staff at New York-based Interpublic Group, one of the world’s biggest communications companies, believed their employer had broken its “industry first” climate pledge through its work for state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco.

LLYC Brasil’s sustainability policy says it is “committed to contributing its strategy and business” to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement, the 2015 global pact that will guide the negotiations at COP30. Scientists have warned that any new fossil fuel development is not compatible with the temperature targets enshrined in the deal.

So campaigners have questioned how LLYC Brasil can maintain this policy — and promote Earthshot’s aim to “fix our climate” — while working with oil and gas clients. 

“The fossil fuel industry and its enablers have shown repeatedly that they have no intention…to pursue a fossil fuel phaseout,” said Patrick Galey, head of fossil fuel investigations at campaign group Global Witness. Public relations groups “play a key role in advancing the agenda of fossil fuel producers,” he said, “greenwashing their reputation and ultimately prolonging the social licence for their planet-wrecking business models.”

‘Reputation Management‘

The parent company of LLYC Brasil, LLYC, offers reputation management and lobbying services for the mining industry across its Latin America offices. According to the website of LLYC’s Argentine branch, its clients include Glencore, an Anglo-Swiss mining and oil and gas giant.

LLYC’s mining team published a report in 2023 that explained how its consultants could “help the [mining] industry manage its social license to operate” in Latin America — industry jargon for pursuing business as usual — in the face of public concern about mining’s social and environmental impact.

For at least the past three years, the Earthshot Prize has also contracted a London-based LLYC sister agency, FGS Global, for promotional services in the UK and worldwide, according to press releases and social media posts reviewed by DeSmog.

FGS Global has worked with at least 11 clients in the fossil fuel sector since 2021, including BP and Shell, according to research by DeSmog.

Although officially separate businesses, FGS Global clients have access to communications experts in the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking world through the LLYC agency network, according to FGS Global’s website.

FGS Global did not respond to a request for comment.

Additional reporting by Juliana Aguilera.