At the end of May, the leaders of Australia’s fossil fuel extraction industry and their enablers in business and government descended on the Brisbane Convention Centre for the annual Australian Energy Producers (AEP) conference.
This time Greenpeace was there to send a message they couldn’t ignore: all members of this fossil fuel lobby group are complicit in fuelling the climate crisis. For companies claiming to support climate action, it’s time to cut ties with the AEP!
With an amazing team of volunteers, we covered the conference surrounds with posters, handed out hundreds of ‘Special Program Supplements’ as people entered the venue, decorated the bathroom mirrors with some cheeky slogans to force attendees to seriously 
reflect, and had our message heard in the media too!
(Keep scrolling for more photos)
And this is just the start.
Australian Energy Producers: the dodgiest fossil fuel lobby group you’ve never heard of
Though not a household name, Australian Energy Producers has an outsized influence on Australian politics. It is the peak body for the fossil fuel industry, comprising approximately 200 members who collectively produce around 95% of Australia’s oil and gas.
Since 1959, the AEP have actively opposed science-aligned climate policies that would control the pollution of the fossil fuel industry. Today, the group continues to aggressively advocate for dirty gas projects like Woodside’s North West Shelf and spend big on ad campaigns to influence public perception of fossil fuels.
Some of its members are the usual suspects: fossil fuel giants like Woodside, Shell, Santos, and Exxon-Mobil.
But you might be surprised to hear that not everyone in AEP are fossil fuel producers. Groups like UNSW, Curtin University, ANZ, PwC, EY, Deloitte and KPMG also hold membership in this profit-hungry group that lobbies for more dirty gas on their behalf.
Warning: If your company or university is a member of this fossil fuel lobby group, you are supporting a toxic industry and may even be at risk of legal action. Find out more
What did Greenpeace do at the AEP conference?
Instead of telling you exactly everything we did, why not put yourself in the shoes of the audience we hoped to reach with our creative interventions:
You work at an AEP member company like PwC and you’re on your way to the conference on Monday morning. Most of the time you feel pretty good about your job and your company. You’re proud of your company’s strong commitments to reaching net zero emissions and you brought your keep-cup to the event. As you search for the entrance your reflection catches you off guard on the opposite wall. It’s a Greenpeace poster embedded with a shiny mirror, calling the conference “a meeting of Australia’s biggest climate deniers.” You keep walking.
Later that day you check your LinkedIn App to see if any of your networking has paid off in new connection requests. *Sigh* only a post in your feed and a DM from Greenpeace with another dig about the fossil fuel lobby group.
You start to feel a little uncomfortable.
Day 2:
A friendly volunteer with a suit and lanyard points you in the direction of the conference and offers you a Special Program Supplement. Great, you needed one of those!
On your way into the first session you make a pit stop in the bathroom. Washing your hands afterwards you have to rub your eyes a few times to check if you’re starting to imagine things. Nope, it’s real. Right above your reflection is a sign clear as day “I’m the problem, it’s me.”
PwC isn’t the problem though…we do our part on climate, you think! But the words sound emptier than they did before.
Once inside you take your seat and open up the program supplement.
It reads: Australian Energy Producers is a fossil fuel lobby group who is fuelling climate change. And now we have found out who is really behind them…
YOU.
Just like Big Tobacco lied about cigarettes being safe, Big Gas is lying to you about fossil fuels. Drilling for more gas is incompatible with a safe climate.
The person to your right notices the mirror in your program and leans over to take a look. You both laugh it off and roll your eyes, but you’re starting to feel a bit sick. You reach into your bag to grab a notebook and notice another “I’m the problem sticker” that’s stuck between the pages.
You’d like to get out for some air. But Woodside CEO Meg O’Neil is on a tirade blaming young people for climate change and it would be an awkward moment to stand up. You clap politely instead.
Gas is a dirty fossil fuel driving dangerous climate change
In spite of the enormous advertising budgets used by Australian Energy Producers and many of its members to make gas seem ‘clean’ and ‘natural,’ gas is a polluting fossil fuel!!! Do we need to say it louder for the people in the back?
Coal, oil and gas account for over 75% of the global greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change. Gas is primarily made up of methane, which is even more polluting than carbon dioxide. When burned for energy, gas produces carbon dioxide. In Australia, gas accounts for at least 21% of carbon dioxide emissions. But methane and carbon dioxide also leak out into the atmosphere at every stage of gas production and transport, and tracking technology shows that more dangerous greenhouse gasses are released than are officially measured. When the processing and transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) are taken into account, there’s nothing “clean” about it: gas is a more polluting fossil fuel than coal.
New gas is incompatible with the world’s goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees
The protest sought to increase pressure on the Australian government to commit to a timeline for a fair and fast phase out away from all fossil fuels, starting with no more coal and gas.
Australia is the world’s third largest exporter of fossil fuels, and the Newcastle Port is the world’s largest coal export port. On the final day of the “protestival”, 170 people were arrested while out in their kayaks blocking the channel to prevent coal ships from passing, successfully forcing one coal ship to turn around.
While Australian Energy Producers like to say “we don’t get to net zero without natural gas” – and use this as justification for further gas expansion, the reality is we won’t get to net zero with new gas.
The International Energy Agency’s landmark Net Zero by 2050 report concluded that no new investment in oil, gas or coal is needed to reach net zero by 2050. Reaching net zero globally by 2050 is essential to limit global warming to 1.5C, in keeping with the Paris Agreement temperature goal – a legally binding international treaty on climate change which Australia is a Party to.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that existing fossil fuel projects could already push us past the 1.5C target. There is a large consensus that new oil and gas projects are fundamentally incompatible with the Paris Agreement, confirmed by the International Institute for Sustainable Development.The good news is, we don’t need to – as around 80% of Australia’s gas is currently exported, and demand for gas is falling domestically as we electrify everything and consumers look for alternatives because of high gas prices. And there is much more that can be done to reduce gas demand and power our homes and businesses with clean energy instead.
Time to quit Australian Energy Producers?
While climate change accelerates, Australian Energy Producers keep pushing fossil fuel interests. Claiming to support Net Zero while acting in ways that would make it impossible to attain simply doesn’t cut it in 2025.
Any company who is an Associate Member of AEP is complicit.
But if companies and universities want to stand on the right side of history, it’s not too late to cut ties with the AEP and cancel their membership.
We need everyone on board to support the renewable energy solutions that will power the clean transition and provide sustainable, well paid jobs, while we work together to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
Is your company an AEP member? Email us at Quit-AEP@greenpeace.org for more information on how you can raise this issue as an employee.
Not an AEP member but still concerned about its fossil fuel agenda? Sign the petition for no new fossil fuels!
But a $345 million U.S. verdict against the environmental group hangs over the case.
A lawsuit filed by Greenpeace International against the U.S.-based fossil fuel company Energy Transfer in the Netherlands is moving forward after a Dutch court recently ruled in favor of the environmental organization in rejecting the company’s bid to toss out the case.
Greenpeace’s Dutch Anti-SLAPP Case Against Oil Pipeline Giant Advances
Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and oceans correspondent Teresa Tomassoni as they discuss the search for heat-resilient coral reefs that are somehow defying the odds to survive a warming planet.
The world has already lost more than half of its coral reefs, and most of what remains is at risk of disappearing in the next 25 years.
Climate Change
DeBriefed 19 June 2026: Bonn talks end in ‘gridlock’ | Energy’s ‘new era’ | Oceans in climate negotiations
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Bonn talks close
‘SIDE-STEPPING AND STALLING’: UN climate talks in Bonn have ended in “gridlock”, according to Climate Home News. The outlet reported on the failure to balance developing countries’ need for climate-adaptation finance with “richer nations’ desire to move forward” on emissions cuts. It added that both topics were subject to “rule 16”, meaning no agreement could be reached and work will be pushed to the COP31 summit in Turkey. Inside Climate News quoted UN climate executive secretary Simon Stiell, who said the talks had seen “side-stepping and stalling”.
JUST TRANSITION: One “glimmer of hope” came from negotiations on achieving a “just transition”, reported Euronews. The news outlet said negotiators “made headway on operationalising the Belém-Antalya mechanism”, intended to support people in the shift to a low-carbon economy. However, Politico concluded that much of the focus in Bonn had “shift[ed] to efforts outside diplomatic talks – raising questions about the future of global climate negotiations”.
‘ATTACKING SCIENCE’: Agence France-Presse reported on the EU, Switzerland and “dozens of developing nations” warning of “attacks on science” by a “small group of fossil-fuels interests” in Bonn. Table Briefings explained that “the 1.5C target is increasingly being challenged” and the role of the UN climate-science panel – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – in an upcoming assessment of global climate progress “remains controversial”. See Carbon Brief’s full write-up of the talks for more detail.
US-Iran deal
PRICE DROP: The US and Iran announced that they have reached an interim agreement to halt the war and reopen the strait of Hormuz, reported Bloomberg. Oil prices have fallen, as the “long-awaited deal” began the process of “eas[ing]” the global energy crisis triggered by the conflict, according to the New York Times. The Associated Press noted that high fuel prices will “likely outlast the Iran war”.
‘OIL GLUT’: The Financial Times reported that the International Energy Agency (IEA) has forecast a “glut of oil” emerging next year, if the peace deal holds. The IEA said this would allow countries to build new strategic reserves, as they “review their energy strategies and policies in response to the crisis”, according to Reuters.
‘NEW ERA’: Agence France-Presse reported that oil and gas companies have “few illusions about a return to normal for the Gulf energy industry after more than three months of blockage”. One analyst told the newswire that the war “showed the oil and gas industry that Hormuz risk is no longer just a geopolitical headline”.
Around the world
- OCEAN MONITOR: The Trump administration is “abandoning its plan” to dismantle a $368m ocean monitoring system key for tracking climate change after a “bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill”, reported the New York Times.
- CORAL HAVEN: The New York Times covered preliminary research, presented at the Our Ocean Conference in Kenya, suggesting there could be three times as many “coral refugia” – where corals are relatively safe from climate change – than previously thought.
- BAD CREDIT: Down to Earth reported that the first carbon credits issued under the Paris Agreement’s new Article 6.4 mechanism are “facing scrutiny over alleged links to institutions controlled by Myanmar’s military junta”.
- OIL BACKTRACK: Reuters reported that oil-and-gas company Equinor has dropped a renewable-energy target and scaled back clean investments, while another Reuters story noted that Shell is selling off its offshore wind assets.
1.1 billion
The number of children facing “at least three overlapping climate hazards”, according to a new Unicef report covered by Agence France-Presse.
Latest climate research
- Including the “permafrost carbon-climate feedback” in climate models increases the chance of exceeding “tipping elements” – such as the Greenland ice sheets, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation or Amazon rainforest – by up to 50% | Environmental Research Letters
- The intensity of influenza outbreaks could decline in temperate regions, but increase in tropical areas over the next century, as the climate warms | PNAS Nexus
- European snow cover has declined by 20% for December and January since the start of the industrial era, revealing an “unprecedented ongoing shrinkage of European winters” | Communications Earth & Environment
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Captured
The more than 2m battery electric vehicles (BEVs), 1m “plug-in” hybrids (PHEVs) and 100,000 electric vans on UK roads are already saving drivers a total of around £3bn a year, according to new Carbon Brief analysis. This amounts to savings of more than £1,100 a year in fuel costs for each BEV driver in the UK. The analysis comes amid reports in UK media this week that the government is considering “watering down” its EV sales targets.
Spotlight
Oceans rising at UN climate talks
The state of the world’s oceans is inextricably linked to the changing climate – and many delegates at UN climate talks want to see more focus on this issue, reports Carbon Brief.
Oceans are often described as the world’s “greatest ally” against climate change – absorbing 30% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and most of the heat generated by those emissions.
They are also the site of important climate solutions, such as huge offshore windfarms and the shipping industry’s transition to cleaner fuels.
At the same time, the oceans themselves present a growing danger to coastal communities and sea life due to sea level rise, marine heatwaves and ocean acidification.
These diverse issues have led to growing calls within the UN climate process for more focus on oceans. During climate negotiations this week in Bonn – known as SB64 – nations and civil society had a chance to air these views during an “ocean and climate change dialogue”.
‘Elevate action’
Oceans first entered UN climate outcomes in 2019, when the final COP25 negotiated text requested a new “dialogue” on “the ocean and climate change to consider how to strengthen mitigation and adaptation action”.
The following years saw this dialogue established as an annual event. However, the political weight of these discussions has been limited.
COP31 is being co-led by Turkey and Australia, but with Pacific islands playing a supporting role. These small islands sometimes self-identify as “large ocean states”, stressing the ocean’s centrality in their societies.
In Bonn, figures from across the presidency threw their weight behind this issue. Chris Bowen, an Australian minister and incoming COP31 “president of negotiations”, told attendees:
“Australia, Turkey and the Pacific see an important opportunity to elevate ocean-based climate action.”
Strategies and finance
The two-day dialogue in Bonn involved a series of panels, statements and breakout groups.
One of the main topics was how oceans are integrated into national climate plans under the Paris Agreement, known as “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs).
Three-quarters of the latest round of NDCs mention oceans, with conservation of “blue carbon” ecosystems the most frequently described action. (Landscapes such as mangroves can both absorb CO2 and protect coastal areas.)
Delegates also discussed alignment with the UN biodiversity process, as well as ocean finance, which currently makes up less than 1% of all climate finance.
(As discussions were taking place in Bonn, country officials also gathered in Mombasa, Kenya for the 11th Our Ocean Conference. Carbon Brief’s associate editor Giuliana Viglione attended the conference and will publish a full summary shortly.)
Developing countries were clear that many of the ocean-related actions in their NDCs would depend on receiving more financial support.
‘Political momentum’
With the backing of the COP31 presidency, delegates were hopeful about where this year’s dialogue could lead.
Charles Hamilton, an advisor for the Bahamas who spoke for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) in the dialogue, told Carbon Brief that island representatives “are not traveling thousands of miles to just talk and pat ourselves on the back”. He added:
“A dialogue that just remains a dialogue is just more talk – no action.”
Given that, he said “discussions in the dialogue must move into COP decisions and the decisions must be actioned”, noting the importance of finance.
Marina Corrêa, oceans lead at WWF-Brazil, pointed to an upcoming UN climate change Standing Committee on Finance forum as a space to ramp up pressure on ocean finance.
More broadly, she wanted to see the presidencies translate their support into a “leader-level ocean initiative” that could “mainstream” oceans across negotiations.
“We have a really interesting opportunity, in terms of political momentum,” Corrêa told Carbon Brief.
Watch, read, listen
‘HOTTER THAN HELL’: An episode of the BBC’s Rare Earth podcast titled “hotter than hell” considered the issue of extreme heat, with input from experts and “people facing up to the hottest temperatures on the planet”.
NOT BROKEN?: John Drake, a professor of ecology at the University of Georgia, wrote an essay for Aeon – also re-published as a Guardian “long read” – questioning the framing of ecosystems and climate systems “breaking down”.
ON COURSE: On his Volts podcast, US climate journalist David Roberts interviewed UK climate minister Katie White, quizzing her about whether the UK will “stay the course with its climate plans”.
Coming up
- 20-28 June: London climate action week
- 21 June: Colombia presidential runoff
- 24 June: UK Climate Change Committee progress in reducing emissions 2026 report to parliament
Pick of the jobs
- Mongabay, managing editor – Africa | Salary: Unknown. Location: Global
- Contexte, environment reporter – Brussels | Salary: €45,000-€60,000. Location: Brussels
- Climate 200, communications director | Salary: Unknown. Location: Australia
- Energy Tracker Asia, energy transition correspondent | Salary: $3,000-$4,000 per month. Location: South-east Asia (remote)
DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org.
This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s weekly DeBriefed email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.
The post DeBriefed 19 June 2026: Bonn talks end in ‘gridlock’ | Energy’s ‘new era’ | Oceans in climate negotiations appeared first on Carbon Brief.
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