Coldplay Addresses Backlash Amid Oil Company Partnership: ‘We Are Doing Our Best’

British band Coldplay shared a statement Wednesday explaining their side after their partnership with Finnish Oil Company Neste was met with strong criticism.

According to the statement, the “My Universe” musicians partnered with Neste in an attempt to decrease their overall carbon emissions for their “Music Of The Spheres World Tour,” which commenced on March 18. While the band aimed to make the tour as “sustainable” and “low-impact” as possible, the move was met with flak after Europe-based NGOs revealed Neste’s ties to deforestation.

The band, comprised of Chris Martin, Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Phil Harvey and Will Champion, said they have set a target of reducing their overall emissions by 50% compared to their last tour in 2017. To achieve this, the band said it is eliminating the use of fossil fuels in show production and land freight.

“We’re also trying to reduce emissions from air travel with sustainable aviation fuel,” the group said in their statement, adding that they even used renewable waste such as recycled cooking oil and by-products from wood pulp manufacture to fuel the plane they use for the tour.

U.S.-based NGO Friends of the Earth revealed that Neste’s palm oil suppliers cleared at least 10,000 hectares of forest in Indonesia and Malaysia between 2019 and 2020, according to The Guardian. Moreover, suppliers of the world’s largest biofuel producer were said to have been involved in forest fires, land conflict and labor rights abuse.

Meanwhile, Transport and Environment campaign (T&E) group appealed to the British musicians to drop their partnership with Neste.

“Neste is cynically using Coldplay to greenwash its reputation. This is a company that is linked to the kind of deforestation that would appall Chris Martin and his fans. It’s not too late, they should drop their partnership with Neste now and focus on truly clean solutions instead,” Carlos Calvo Ambel, senior director of the T&E said.

Ambel added, “Coldplay’s commitment to reduce its emissions is no doubt well-intentioned. But teaming up with a company linked to deforestation makes them useful idiots for greenwashing.”

Coldplay members said they will welcome suggestions regarding the matter.

“When we announced this tour, we said that we would try our best to make it as sustainable and low carbon-impact as possible, but that it would be a work in progress. That remains true. We don’t claim to have got it all right yet,” the band said. “We are doing our best, and always genuinely welcome suggestions as to how to do it better.”

A spokesperson for Neste said the company does "not accept any sustainability violations in our own operations.”

“For our collaboration with Coldplay, conventional palm oil was not used as a raw material,” Hanna Leijala said, adding: “Neste plans to reduce the share of conventional palm oil to 0% of its global renewable raw material inputs by the end of 2023.”