PR juggernaut Edelman worked with Koch network, despite climate promises

This story was originally published by The Guardian and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Edelman, the world’s largest public relations company, was among the Charles Koch Foundation’s highest-paid vendors in 2022, a 990 tax disclosure form shows, alarming climate advocates.

The PR giant has made numerous climate declarations over the past decade, including making a pledge to eschew projects promoting climate denial. Partnering with a part of the Koch network, which has long worked to sow climate doubt, calls those pledges into question, said Duncan Meisel, the executive director of Clean Creatives, a non-profit pushing creative agencies to cut ties with fossil fuel polluters.

“A relationship with the Koch network … puts them totally out of step with their stated climate commitments,” said Meisel.

An Edelman spokesperson said the company’s contract with the foundation ended one year ago.

But that was “well after” Edelman published climate statements that should have ruled out such a contract, said Meisel, who shared the 2022 tax document with The Guardian.

Edelman made its first-ever formal declaration to eschew work on campaigns that deny global warming nearly a decade ago, in 2014.

“Edelman fully recognizes the reality of, and science behind, climate change,” the company’s position on climate change read. “To be clear, we do not accept client assignments that aim to deny climate change.”

Months later, in the lead-up to 2015’s high-profile climate negotiations in Paris, the firm cut ties with the U.S.’s biggest oil lobby group, and soon after with all coal producers.

In 2021, the firm published a new environmental pledge that excluded the commitment not to work on climate denial, and which appears to have replaced the previous one on Edelman’s website.

“The new statement was much vaguer, and it wasn’t clear whether that reflected an actual change in practice for Edelman,” said Meisel. “Did it mean they would start working with deniers again?”

Edelman did not directly state whether this signified a policy change but said “any prior policies were updated with our Climate Commitments,” which were first published in November 2021 amid surging public pressure from climate advocates.

Those commitments omit the climate denial pledge but include a promise to “put science and facts first”. It’s “particularly striking” that the firm would begin a contract with the Charles Koch Foundation after publishing them, said Meisel.

The PR firm’s contract with the Charles Koch Foundation in 2022 was worth just over $100,000, the tax form shows — a sum that is “ridiculously puny” for Edelman, said Christine Arena, a former executive vice-president at Edelman and climate advocate.

However, she noted, Edelman has long promoted planet-heating projects. The PR giant and its subsidiaries have worked on initiatives aimed at blocking climate legislation, and in 2014 the firm came under fire for creating a faux grassroots group to support the highly polluting Keystone XL pipeline. It has also signed significant contracts with major oil producers, including the United Arab Emirates, which hosted last year’s international climate negotiations.

“What we’ve seen consistently is a mismatch between what Edelman says and what’s actually done,” said Arena, who now works in social impact film-making.

The relationship with the Charles Koch Foundation also does not necessarily reflect the full extent of Edelman’s relationship with the Koch network, said Meisel. The firm may have signed larger contracts with the multinational conglomerate Koch Industries, but because that is a for-profit company, it does not have to disclose its financials. Edelman did not respond to questions about involvement with other programs within the Koch network.

Edelman has worked with Koch-backed projects in the past, including the American Legislative Exchange Council, which has long worked to fight climate policies. Meisel also noted that Steve Lombardo, who heads marketing and communications for Koch Industries, is a former Edelman employee, and that Koch Industries hired several other former Edelman employees between 2014 and 2016.

“Generally, you see that kind of cross-pollination between companies that are working together closely,” said Meisel. Edelman did not respond to questions about the employees.

The 2022 tax form does not specify the initiatives on which the Charles Koch Foundation and Edelman partnered. But that year, the foundation, whose board is chaired by the fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch, financially supported a number of entities that promote climate skepticism, financial disclosure documents show.

Those groups include the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which has long worked to block U.S. climate policies and referred to climate concern as “global warming alarmism”; the Atlas Foundation, which has worked to criminalize climate protest; and the Manhattan Institute and the Fraser Institute, whose fellows regularly publish work questioning climate science.

Because Edelman has kept its climate commitments “vague,” it can be difficult to pin down any specific clients its pledges disallow, said Meisel.

And because it has consistently violated those commitments, said Arena, they should not be considered policy.

“A climate policy is what you do, how you behave, business decisions you make,” she said. “In practice … Edelman’s policy is to say one thing and do another.”

This article was amended on Jan. 16, 2024. An earlier version said the R Street Institute’s fellows regularly publish work questioning climate science. The organization acknowledges the risks posed by the climate crisis.