The Role of Stakeholders to Minimise Greenwashing

The Role of Stakeholders to Minimise Greenwashing

Keith Mullin

35 years: Capital markets editorial

In the second video of this series, Keith talks about moves to harden the regulatory requirements around data disclosure, which many agree are needed to make green finance more credible.

In the second video of this series, Keith talks about moves to harden the regulatory requirements around data disclosure, which many agree are needed to make green finance more credible.

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The Role of Stakeholders to Minimise Greenwashing

10 mins 26 secs

Key learning objectives:

  • What is the role of investors in calling out greenwashing?

  • What role can government and regulators play in calling out greenwashing?

  • How are customers protected from being misled?

  • What is the role of the European commission in improving companies' non-financial performance?

Overview:

The regulatory landscape is shifting towards formal disclosure and potential sanctions for non-compliance. The EU is leading the way but this is a global endeavour. Concrete steps are being taken to enforce data disclosure and standards, which will help investors and consumers make informed decisions

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Summary
What is the role of investors in calling out greenwashing?
Investors have a key role to play in calling out greenwashing and poor ESG practices by dis-investing in companies that engage in them or using debt or equity denial as a tactic to force corrective behaviour.
Voluntary guidance and making sure issuers know what the expectations are in the terms of net zero alignment is not enough. ESG investors are under huge pressure to align their portfolios to net zero. To do that and avoid greenwashing themselves, investors need firm assurances that the capital they allocate to ESG delivers on claims.
What role can government and regulators play in calling out greenwashing?
Governments and regulators must take a stand against greenwashing in the consumer, business, professional, and institutional sectors by enacting official legislation and enforcing penalties for non-compliance. Greenwashing must be formally captured in law under headings of predatory, aggressive, misleading, or deceptive conduct and behaviour.
ESG investing cannot be reduced to a box-ticking activity. When asked, many investors admit that they are skeptical of green bonds' ability to deliver on their promises. That is inexcusable.
How are customers protected from being misled?
The Australian Consumer Law, for example, bans people in trade and commerce from engaging in unfair, misleading, deceptive and unconscionable conduct. Under the ACL, false advertising, misrepresentation, and withholding key information are all classed as conduct that is misleading or deceptive. The burden of proof is on claimants to prove that they relied on misleading or deceptive conduct to their detriment.
Consumer protection regulations in the EU consider withholding material information that consumers need to make informed decisions, and which causes them to make decisions they would not have made otherwise, to be misleading.
What is the role of the European commission in improving companies' non-financial performance?
Investors and customers are putting pressure on businesses to enhance their non-financial performance in areas such as social and environmental issues. The European Commission issued guidelines in 2017 to assist corporations in disclosing environmental and social information, and it issued additional rules in 2019 for reporting climate-related data. However, the Commission continues to feel that the information provided by firms is insufficient, that it omits items that stakeholders consider to be relevant, that it is unreliable, and that it is difficult to compare between organisations.
So, on April 21, 2021, the Commission unveiled its proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which it hopes will improve the credibility of the green investment market. The Non-Financial Reporting Directive will be tightened and expanded by the CSRD.

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Keith Mullin

Keith Mullin

Keith is the founder and director of KM Capital Markets, a media and thought-leadership consultancy. He spent the past 35 years working in specialist capital markets media and has had a ring-side seat at all of the major market events. Prior to setting up KM Capital Markets in 2017, Keith worked at Thomson Reuters.

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