A “red line” should be drawn around the greenwashing the UN has urged, citing 29 disasters which cost over US$1bn each so far this year.
In a report released at the COP27 climate summit, António Guterres, UN general secretary said: “We urgently need every business, investor, city, state and region to walk the talk on their net zero promises.
“We cannot afford slow movers, fake movers or any form of greenwashing,” he said, also highlighting that action against climate change needs to be taken by businesses and not just nations.
HSBC Holdings PLC (LSE:HSBA) had adverts banned by the Advertising Standards Agency for exaggerated climate claims while the Royal Bank of Canada (TSX:RY) has also been under investigation of allegedly using misleading market practices.
Other banks have also been heavily criticised over environmental claims, including Barclays PLC (LSE:BARC) and Standard Chartered PLC (LSE:STAN), as they continue to finance fossil fuel projects.
Regulatory bodies have seemingly upped their efforts to punish businesses that are suspected of greenwashing, tackling an issue that often sees customers mislead over their environmental efforts.
Catherina Mckenna, chair of the expert group that wrote the report, said: “Money needs to move from funding fossil fuel infrastructure and instead be invested at scale in clean energy.”
“Instead of being on track to reduce emissions by 45% by 2030, emissions are set to increase by close to 11%.”
Within the report, several recommendations were made by the UN, including that voluntary carbon credits should not be counted towards companies’ emission reductions and should not replace direct reform aiming to reduce operational output of greenhouse gasses.
COP27 has unofficially been called the ‘implementation event,’ with hopes that the conference will see nations’ and companies’ plans finally converted on mass into action on climate change.