Energy companies shift blame to consumers

Study finds top polluters weave 'eco-hero' narratives

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Making changes to your everyday life can feel like you're playing a part in making the future more environmentally sustainable. But new data suggests that storytelling by energy organisations often places an unrealistic burden on consumers to be heroes in the climate change narrative, absolving the industry of its responsibility. Meanwhile, individuals' actions pale in comparison to the impact of big businesses.

“We need to be much more careful about how we talk about this,” says Dr Tom van Laer from the University of Sydney Business School in Australia, who authored the study published in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing.

Globally, the energy sector is the largest contributor to carbon emissions. So van Laer wanted to check how accurately energy organisations in his country – responsible for almost half of Australia’s national emissions – frame their role in this.

His team pored over 300 different communication materials from 44 Australian energy organisations from energy providers to non-government policy regulators – between 2015 and 2022. Being a narratologist (an academic who studies storytelling and its influence) van Laer specifically analysed the materials' use of 'characters' and their role in the story.

THE ONE THING

The conclusion: most energy communications initially addressed what the organisations are doing to improve, "but then they very quickly say, 'But the consumer should really start taking this stuff seriously,'" van Laer says. "It's a nice little twist."