Climate-Washing Litigation: Legal Liability for Misleading Climate Communications

The report defines 'climate-washing' as a subset of greenwashing specifically targeting climate change claims and examines the rising trend of litigation used to hold state and non-state actors accountable. It categorizes misleading communications into three areas: corporate/governmental commitments (such as net-zero pledges), product attributes (such as labeling natural gas as 'clean'), and the disclosure of financial risks and investments. The authors highlight a gap between public climate pledges and actual emission reductions, noting that many companies continue to invest in fossil fuels while advertising clean energy. The document provides recommendations for companies, policymakers, NGOs, and lawyers to combat disinformation and increase transparency.

• Climate-washing litigation is an increasing trend aimed at holding governmental and non-governmental actors legally accountable for products or actions that misleadingly claim to address climate change. Since 2016, at least 20 judicial cases have been filed in the US, Australia, France, and the Netherlands, while at least 27 administrative complaints have been filed before oversight bodies in the UK, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Denmark, the US, and South Korea since 2008.
• There is a significant gap between the net-zero commitments made by entities and their actual implementation plans. An analysis of over 4,000 entities found that while 124 countries, 73 states and regions, 155 cities, and 417 companies made net-zero commitments covering at least 61% of global greenhouse gases, only 25 nations, 41 states and regions, 65 cities, and 210 companies had published plans to reach those targets.
• Fossil fuel companies often engage in climate-washing by representing natural gas, hydrogen, or biofuels as 'clean' or 'sustainable' while omitting the impact of upstream methane emissions or fossil fuel components. For example, the Italian Competition and Market Authority fined Eni 5 million euros for labeling biofuels as 'green' diesel, and the New Zealand Advertising Standards Board found FirstGas's 'zero carbon' natural gas claim to be misleading.
• Major oil companies frequently portray themselves as leaders in clean energy despite minimal capital investment in low-carbon sources. Between 2010 and 2018, capital investments in low-carbon energy were only 2.3% for BP, 1.2% for Shell, 0.2% for Chevron, 0.2% for ExxonMobil, and 0.0% for ConocoPhillips.
• Litigation is increasingly targeting the failure of companies to disclose material financial risks associated with climate change to investors. This includes derivative suits for breach of fiduciary duty and claims of systematic risk misrepresentation, such as those faced by ExxonMobil in the US and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

APA

Bhargava, A., Franta, B., Toral, K. M., Tandon, A., Benjamin, L., & Setzer, J. (2022). Climate-Washing Litigation: Legal Liability for Misleading Climate Communications. Climate Social Science Network. https://cssn.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/CSSN-Research-Report-2022-1-Climate-Washing-Litigation-Legal-Liability-for-Misleading-Climate-Communications.pdf

Chicago

Bhargava, Akriti, Benjamin Franta, Karla Martínez Toral, Aradhna Tandon, Lisa Benjamin, and Joana Setzer. Climate-Washing Litigation: Legal Liability for Misleading Climate Communications. Climate Social Science Network, 2022. https://cssn.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/CSSN-Research-Report-2022-1-Climate-Washing-Litigation-Legal-Liability-for-Misleading-Climate-Communications.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{bhargava2022climatewashing, author = {Bhargava, Akriti and Franta, Benjamin and Toral, Karla Martínez and Tandon, Aradhna and Benjamin, Lisa and Setzer, Joana}, title = {{Climate-Washing Litigation: Legal Liability for Misleading Climate Communications}}, institution = {Climate Social Science Network}, year = {2022}, month = jan, url = {https://cssn.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/CSSN-Research-Report-2022-1-Climate-Washing-Litigation-Legal-Liability-for-Misleading-Climate-Communications.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }