By Matthew Green and Andrew R.C. Marshall
LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) - Britain's advertising watchdog
has opened an investigation into claims by Shell that
customers at its petrol stations can "drive carbon neutral",
after receiving complaints from members of the public, the
regulator said on Monday.
Shell said in October that it would become the first petrol
retailer in Britain to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from
customers' fuel purchases at its service stations at no extra
cost by backing forestry schemes.
The Advertising Standards Authority said it had launched an
investigation into radio advertisements for the promotion after
receiving complaints from 17 listeners who considered them to be
misleading.
"We've launched a formal investigation into whether the
radio ad clearly discloses enough information in relation to
this offer and will publish our findings in due course," said
Freddie Alcock, a media officer at the ASA.
The ASA did not make the content of the complaints
available.
Carbon offsetting rests on the principle that companies can
neutralise the impact of their emission by paying money to plant
forests or restore other types of ecosystems capable of
absorbing an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide.
Critics of the schemes say that they give the false
impression that it is possible to take meaningful action to slow
global warming without following the advice of climate
scientists to rapidly scale back the use of fossil fuels.
Shell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A Shell spokeswoman referred Reuters to a company webpage https://www.goplus.shell.com/en-gb
that offers a detailed explanation of how its carbon offset
programme works.
(Additional reporting by Ron Bousso in LONDON)
(Reporting by Matthew Green, Editing by William Maclean)
