Using the law to hold companies accountable for greenwashing
A growing number of companies misleadingly portray themselves as clean energy leaders, advertise dubious claims about carbon neutrality, and falsely promote fossil fuels as sustainable. Public audiences are presented with climate solutions that in reality are often practically nonexistent or non-viable. Net-zero and other pledges are widely advertised even though many of them lack meaningful action or verifiable plans. These practices often conflict with consumer protection and competition laws.
The Climate Litigation Lab at the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme aims to prevent and limit greenwashing by holding these companies legally accountable for their claims. To achieve this, The Climate Litigation Lab, has co-developed Eco-bot.net, an evidentiary tool for discovering, archiving, and analyzing online climate-related advertisements and communications for use in legal actions. Part of this project is to expand and further develop this tool.