In 2015, its journalists posed as energy company representatives and exposed academics willing to write papers supporting the fossil fuel industry in exchange for covert funding.

In 2018, it covertly recorded the director of the Institute of Economic Affairs, Mark Littlewood, offering access to UK government officials in exchange for donations.

[3][4] In 2020, it used public records requests to uncover that BP successfully lobbied the Trump administration to weaken the National Environmental Policy Act.

[5] In 2021, its journalists posed as job recruiters and tricked an ExxonMobil lobbyist into revealing details of the company's efforts to oppose the Biden administration's climate agenda.

Some observers have noted the potential ethical concerns of blurring activism and reporting, and of conducting undercover operations that involve deceiving sources.