Climate Change: as Asia-Pacific regulators clamp down on ‘greenwashing’, investors too should step up due diligence, panel hears
- ‘Greenwashing’ has been a concern in Australia, which has started regulatory action against it, CEO of investors’ initiative Asia Investor Group on Climate Change says
- Investors must ‘roll up our sleeves to interrogate the claims made by companies’, Abrdn executive says
“In Australia, greenwashing has been a concern for some years and it has been translated into regulatory action recently,” Rebecca Mikula-Wright, CEO of investors’ initiative Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC), told a webinar this week.
Last Friday, Jim Chalmers, Australia’s treasurer, announced that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission will be provided with A$4.3 million (US$2.8 million) in additional funding to strengthen surveillance and enforcement resources for combating misleading green claims.
This comes close on the heels of an inquiry by the Australian Senate into greenwashing across the economy. The inquiry, which is inviting submissions until June, is being widely seen as a precursor to legislative changes that would protect consumers and reform advertising standards, Mikula-Wright said. A draft anti-greenwashing bill is expected to be passed into legislation this year in South Korea as well, she added.
Greenwashing refers to exaggerated claims of environmental benefits that cannot be substantiated. AIGCC this week launched a guide aimed at helping Asian asset managers, banks, institutional investors and regulators better understand the growing phenomenon and the ways to avoid it.