Flights of Fancy: Preventing European airlines from making far-fetched climate claims

A study commissioned by Carbon Market Watch and conducted by the Öko-Institut analysed the action or investments that eight major European airlines were taking outside their value chains. These include activities that supposedly avoid or reduce greenhouse gas emissions and those that remove and store greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. The eight selected airlines are …

FIFA World Cup in Qatar scores own goal with misleading carbon neutrality claim, new report

The FIFA World Cup in Qatar advertises itself as the first carbon-neutral tournament of its kind. Our latest research casts serious doubt on this claim, suggesting that this goal will be achieved through creative accounting rather than actually reaching a carbon footprint of (net) zero.

Carbon Neutral* – Can legislation put an end to greenwashing?

If a banana shipped from the other side of the world was labelled carbon neutral, would you believe it? Data suggests that you probably shouldn’t. Of the net-zero pledges of 25 companies evaluated in the 2021 Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor report, only one was deemed as having ‘reasonable integrity’. Similarly, a recent ECOS report suggests …

EU works to beef up regulations on green claims while NGOs take to the courts to combat greenwashing

The proliferation of dubious green claims by companies has sparked renewed concern about the lack of adequate regulation to prevent greenwashing and the low compliance with existing rules. Regulators are starting to revise outdated provisions, while NGOs are suing companies over misleading advertisements. The European Commission published yesterday (30 March 2022) a new proposal to …

Greenwashing exposes climate of corporate inaction

Instead of cleaning up their businesses and business models to tackle climate change, top corporations are engaging in cosmetic change and greenwashing to improve their image. Why is this? Climate action is in the air. Like governments around the world, major corporations are falling over themselves to issue climate pledges and, in keeping with being …

March newsletter editorial: The Ukraine tragedy and the heavy price of war

The horror playing out in Ukraine disturbs and distresses the Carbon Market Watch team. We have discussed it amongst ourselves. We have expressed our solidarity with those who are affected. We share their anger at the Russian regime’s unwarranted aggression, senseless bloodshed and escalating destruction. We have joined Ukrainian activists in asking for the international …

Regulating corporate green claims and greenwashing – policy recommendations

In an assessment of 25 major global corporations’ climate claims, produced by NewClimate Institute in collaboration with Carbon Market Watch, it was found that nearly all of them rely on some form of loophole or trick to significantly exaggerate the ambition of their climate targets and actions. The EU, and its member states, should improve …

Top corporations use misleading climate pledges to greenwash image, new report

Major global companies are avoiding meaningful climate action and are instead using false, misleading or ambiguous green claims, a new report shows. The first Climate Corporate Responsibility Monitor assesses the pledges made by 25 of the world’s largest corporations, many of them household names, against a set of transparent quantitative and qualitative indicators. Due out …