En nylig rapport fra de australske myndigheder, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), gennemgår en række virksomheders bæredygtighedsudsagn, som vurderes at være greenwashing.
Rapporten konkluderer, at der de seneste 9 måneder har været 35 greenwashingssager, hvor virksomhederne efterfølgende har måttet ændre deres bæredygtighedsudsagn. Ifølge ASIC, har lovovertrædelserne været forbundet med netto-nul udsagn samt brugen af bæredygtighedsudsagn så som ”CO2-neutral” eller ”grøn”.
I rapporten gennemgår ASIC en række eksempler på uretmæssige bæredygtighedsudsagn:
- An oil and gas company removed net zero emissions statements, including a target to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, from its prospectus. The company was unable to provide additional information about how the targets would be achieved and the potential feasibility of achieving them.
- A mining company qualified its ‘clean green’ claims in its prospectus. The company had not completed studies that assessed the feasibility of adopting renewable energy sources or other carbon abatement strategies that would be required to achieve a lower carbon footprint. The disclosure was amended to make clear that this was a future-focused aspiration only.
- An energy exploration company removed ‘clean energy’ claims from its prospectus. The company’s exploration activities were not sufficiently progressed to determine the viability of extracting ‘clean’ energy from its assets.
- The responsible entity of a managed fund deleted, from a fund name, references that suggested that the fund sought to transition away from carbon. The entity deleted the references after we raised concerns that the fund name was not consistent with some of its investments.
Læs mere her.
