• Promises by companies, banks and cities to achieve net-zero emissions often amount to little more than greenwashing, UN experts said in a report.

• The report, released at the COP27 climate conference in Egypt, is intended to draw a red line around false claims of progress in the fight against global warming that can confuse consumers, investors and policy makers.

• The report slams “greenwashing” – misleading the public to believe that a company or entity is doing more to protect the environment than it is – and weak net-zero pledges and provides a roadmap to bring integrity to net-zero commitments by industry, financial institutions, cities and regions and to support a global, equitable transition to a sustainable future.

• We must have zero tolerance for net-zero greenwashing, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

What is greenwashing?

• Some companies give a false impression of their environmental impact or benefits. 

• “Greenwashing” is the practice of misrepresenting the extent to which a financial product or investment strategy is environmentally friendly, sustainable or ethical.

• Greenwashing misleads market actors and does not give due advantage to those companies that are making the effort to green their products and activities. It ultimately leads to a less green economy.

• If greenwash premised upon low-quality net-zero pledges is not addressed, it will undermine the efforts of genuine leaders, creating both confusion, cynicism and a failure to deliver urgent climate action. Which is why, ultimately, regulations will be required to establish a level playing field and ensure that ambition is always matched by action.

Formation of high-level expert group

• Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, the world has seen an increasing number of net-zero commitments by non-State actors, in particular from the private and financial sectors, as well as from local governments and regions. The growth in pledges has been accompanied by a proliferation of criteria and benchmarks to set net-zero commitments with varying levels of robustness.

• There is now a perceived lack of clear, transparent, and generally accepted sets of standards and criteria for the development, measurement, assessment, and accountability of non‑State net-zero pledges and their associated implementation.

• This perception risks undermining the commitments and actions of stakeholders who are serious in delivering on their pledges upon joining the global coalition for net-zero.

• It enables greenwashing, announcements that lack concrete decarbonization plans, undue reliance on the use of offsets and potential unrealistic dependence on removals (in lieu of concrete mitigation action) to reduce absolute emissions which is the priority this decade.

• The Expert Group offers a roadmap to prevent net zero from being undermined by false claims, ambiguity and “greenwash”.

• The recommendations, outlined in the report, detail what non-State actors need to consider through each stage of their progress towards achieving net-zero ambitions and addressing the climate crisis. 

• According to the experts, actors cannot claim to be ‘net-zero’ while continuing to build or invest in new fossil fuel supply or any kind of environmentally destructive activities.

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