What is Green Washing?
Going green is beneficial to business. According to market studies, consumers are generally prepared to spend more on eco-friendly products than on other equivalent products in the market. However, not all environmental claims are equivalent. Greenwashing is a type of deceptive approach that is frequently used to lure an aspiring green consumer. Companies that claim to be sustainable, biodegradable, or environmentally concerned fail to keep their promises to customers.
Greenwashing can be as clear as an explicit lie or as hazy as a stretched truth. The Federal Trade Commission oversees green advertising at the federal level in the United States and has been filing lawsuits against corporations that breach their environmental marketing guidelines since 1992. In recent years, the agency has initiated cases against Walmart and Kohl’s for misrepresenting rayon fabrics as ecologically friendly bamboo, as well as Volkswagen for misrepresenting the fuel efficiency of its vehicles.
UN’s report on Greenwashing
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned companies and other non-state entities pursuing net-zero goals not to engage in “greenwashing” and to upgrade their processes within a year to show the actual results of their actions, in the first official acknowledgment that unfair practices were widely used to claim progress on climate action.
“We must have zero tolerance for net-zero greenwashing,” Guterres made the remarks while releasing the findings of an expert panel he convened last year to recommend ways to combat greenwashing by private enterprises and other non-state organizations. Greenwashing is a term used to describe a variety of behaviors that organizations or even countries engage in, in order to convey false or dubious claims about their climate action.
Guterres said that a rising number of states and non-state actors are vowing to be carbon-neutral, which is encouraging. The issue is that the criteria and standards for these net-zero agreements vary in rigor, with loopholes large enough to drive a diesel truck through.
According to the expert group’s report, non-state entities with net-zero targets must not allow any new investment in fossil fuels, must present verifiable short-term emission reduction goals on the path to net-zero, and must cease all activities that directly or indirectly lead to deforestation, by 2025.
Net zero refers to a situation in which an organization’s or country’s total emissions are balanced by carbon dioxide absorption or removal from the atmosphere. Countries have also set net-zero goals. Most developed countries have pledged to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. China has set a net-zero objective for 2060, while India has committed to achieving it by 2070.
Corporations, towns, regional governments, and even individual sporting events have jumped on the net-zero bandwagon, making a variety of promises that are difficult to verify and frequently questionable. The report of the expert group is aimed at such businesses and organizations.
The group mentioned in their report that the danger is obvious. If greenwashing based on low-quality net zero promises is not addressed, genuine leaders’ efforts will be undermined, resulting in uncertainty, skepticism, and the failure to deliver urgent climate action. As a result, laws will be required in the end to provide a fair playing field and ensure that ambition is always matched by action. The group has also urged businesses and other entities against purchasing “cheap” carbon credits in order to meet their net-zero ambitions. According to the research, these cheap credits frequently lack integrity and do not represent meaningful carbon reductions.
Arunabha Ghosh, CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water in Delhi and a member of the expert panel, stressed the importance of incorporating transparency and integrity into climate action.
According to Ghosh, greenwashing by corporations must end if we are to take net zero seriously. The expert committee advised firms to set clear targets and paths while also delivering absolute emission reductions through their efforts. Simultaneously, net-zero initiatives must result in significantly increased climate investment in sustainable infrastructure in developing nations, as well as favourable social and economic consequences for vulnerable people. The net-zero transition will neither be just nor equitable unless such investments are made. The organisation has also advocated for the development of universally accepted laws and the implementation of new standards in all areas.
According to the research, in order to effectively combat greenwashing and provide a level playing field, non-state actors must transition from voluntary initiatives to regulated net-zero obligations. Verification and enforcement in the volunteer sector are difficult…This is why we advocate for regulation, to begin with, large business emitters, including net zero commitment assurance and mandatory yearly progress reports.
Written by Anvesha Tiwari
Edited by Madiha Tariq