Until January 10th, 2023, the European Supervisory Agencies (ESA’s) are seeking input on potential greenwashing practices in the European Union (EU) financial sector, including banking, insurance and financial markets. Reclaim Finance answered the Call for Evidence. While we consider that the core characteristics of greenwashing proposed by the ESA’s are highly relevant, we highlight two other dimensions that must be considered to prevent greenwashing.
In its answer to ESA’s, Reclaim Finance stresses that in the context of the many climate commitments made by EU financial institutions, one of the additional dimensions that regulators must fully include in their greenwashing investigations is financial institutions’ net-zero claims, taking advantage of the UN High Level Expert Group’s recommendations on net zero commitments. Reclaim Finance calls on other organizations to also submit an answer (deadline: January 10th, 2023). This is a great opportunity to ensure regulators adopt a broad definition of greenwashing that includes all aspects, including entity level claims and commitments.