Climate Litigation, Equality and Unfulfilled Promises: Illuminating Greenwashing in the Public Sector

Abstract

The concept of greenwashing lacks a clear, harmonised legal definition. Yet the predominant focus of scholars and regulators remains on uncovering misleading corporate statements on sustainability. This approach is rooted in consumer protection laws that seek to prevent and challenge statements made to promote the environmental and social credentials of businesses, products, and services that are ill-founded or misleading. There has been rapid growth in the utilisation of this term in both the academic literature, and in wider corporate practice. In the context of climate change, the term has also been invoked in litigation challenging fossil fuel companies’ green energy and net zero commitments. This commentary builds upon the contribution of Onifade, who argues that the scholarship has largely overlooked the contributions of states to the design and enabling of greenwashing or ‘state greenwashing’, along with that of Lee, Pedersen and Stokes, who argue that greenwashing can apply to environmental legislation and underline the significance of political accountability. I seek to further expand the corporate conceptualisation of the term in order to illuminate and challenge unfulfilled climate promises in the public sector. Taking the UK government’s public commitments on climate leadership, adaptation, and inclusive just transition as examples, I argue that greenwashing in the public sector demands greater attention.