Greenwashing

14 Nov 2022 Greenwashing

Significance for Prelims: Concept of Greenwashing

Significance for Mains: Concepts and reasons for Greenwashing; Possible solutions to regulate Greenwashing

News: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned private corporations to desist from ‘greenwashing’.He said that there will be zero tolerance for greenwashing at the ongoing climate meeting i.e. COP27 in Egypt. 

Concept of Greenwashing: 

• Corporations or even Countries often use unfair practices in climate action by exaggerating the actions they took to fight against climate change. They do this by giving false information, and making unverifiable claims about their products or procedures.
• Greenwashing is a tendency among firms and governments to mark every activity as climate-friendly. Firms and governments make unverifiable, misleading, or dubious claims that their activities led to emissions reduction or avoidance of emissions. These claims boost the image and benefit the entity, but they do nothing to mitigate climate change.

Examples of Greenwashing: It is prevalent across a whole range of environmental activities

• Developed countries often greenwash their normal business investments in developing countries or their bilateral aid. Most of the time they greenwash by highlighting climate co-benefits of the financial flows with very little justification.
• Volkswagen scandal: There is evidence that this German car company is cheating in emissions testing of its supposedly green diesel vehicles. 
• Accusations of greenwashing against some multinational corporations shell and BP(oil giants), and Coca-Cola. 
• Impact of Greenwashing: It pushes the world towards climate disaster.  As Greenwashing presents false progress on the climate change front, at the same time rewards entities for irresponsible behaviour.

Reasons for Greenwashing:

• Practically impossible to monitor and verify all the processes and products that cut emissions due to the innumerable number of products. 
• Lack of regulation and standardisation in environmental spaces: Due to the absence of processes, methodologies and institutions.The institutions to measure, report, create standards, verify claims and grant certifications are still at the initial stage. 
• Dearth of integrity and robustness of organisations claiming expertise in climate mitigation areas. But the services of these organisations are still availed by many corporations because it makes them look good.
• Double counting and greenwashing in Carbon Markets: Since the conceptualisation concept of carbon markets has increased manifold. This led to the growth of  Informal carbon markets. But carbon credits transactions in informal, bilateral or voluntary carbon markets are often flagged for lack of integrity and double counting.

Way forward: Implementations of remedial actions report submitted by an expert group formed by the UN Secretary-General

• Mandatory no fresh investments in fossil fuels by corporations pursuing net-zero targets. These corporations must bring an end to all activities leading to deforestation.
• Corporations must present short-term emission reduction goals to achieve net zero. 
• No use of offset mechanisms when corporates start their journey towards net-zero status. 
• Creation of regulatory structures and standards to check greenwashing. 

Further reading:

1. Carbon Market
2. Kyoto Protocol
3. Paris Agreement
4. Carbon offsets

Prelims Question(2022):

Q. Which one of the following best describes the term “greenwashing”? 

(a) Conveying a false impression that a company’s products are eco-friendly and environmentally sound 

(b) Non-inclusion of ecological/environmental costs in the Annual Financial Statements of a country. 

(c) Ignoring the disastrous ecological consequences while undertaking infrastructure development. 

(d) Making mandatory provision for environmental costs

Mains Question(2021):

Q.Describe the major outcomes of the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). What are the commitments made by India at this conference?

Source: The Indian Express

Article: Red flags over ‘greenwashing’ at COP27 — what is it?

Article Link: https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-climate/what-is-greenwashing-recently-condemned-by-un-secretary-general-antonio-guterres-8256946/ 

Yojna IAS Daily current affairs eng med 14th November

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