"Climate washing" litigation has risen sharply in the last two years.
The report, compiled by London's Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, defines 'climate washing' as cases that challenge companies, and occasionally governments, over misinformation or misleading green claims. "One of the most significant groups of climate-washing cases to emerge in recent years have been cases challenging the truthfulness of corporate climate commitments, particularly where these are not backed up by adequate plans and policies," the report authors, Joana Setzer and Kate Higham, said.
The cities of Paris and New York last year joined a coalition of associations and local authorities suing French multinational TotalEnergies for failing to fight climate change adequately, litigation the oil major said it regretted.