Disinformation about solar and wind energy, fueled by Trump, has stalled projects in the West. In Asia, the world's most fossil fuels-dependent region, renewables misinformation has helped to a slow the energy transition.
The findings barely scratch the surface of the greenwashing problem in the region, said RimbaWatch, the Malaysian NGO behind the database. Southeast Asia needs provisions for penalties and better policing of green claims, it said.
Trump 2.0 promises to add to the uncertainties that chief sustainability officers have had to tackle over the last year. Sustainability became harder to sell in the boardroom, and in Asia, the talent crunch is still a problem.
Exploitation in the mining sector gave rise to the term "blood nickel", while ad agencies were in the spotlight for working with fossil fuel giants. Here are the individuals and organisations that made the headlines for the wrong reasons.
Major industry players are working together to create a voluntary global standard that can certify minerals as responsibly produced. But such a framework would consolidate the power and influence of these mining giants and allow them to act with impunity, while providing false assurances to investors, governments, and consumers.
Oleh
Chelsea Hodgkins
Measuring environmental impact has historically been prohibitively expensive, but technology can change the equation. Blockchain advocate Sunny Lu argues that verified sustainability can help brands build trust with eco-conscious consumers.
Oleh
Sunny Lu
Asean's growing carbon trading initiatives present vast opportunities for emissions reduction and economic growth, but equitable frameworks and robust regulations are critical to their success.
Oleh
Julie de los Reyes dan
Katrina Navallo
In the video, environmental law group ClientEarth compares the oil and gas giant's advertisements on its low-carbon investments to a burger chain claiming that they’re vegan because they’ve got salad on the menu.
Formula 1 emits the carbon equivalent of 30,000 homes as it roars through 21 countries in a season. Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 head of sustainability Alice Ashpitel says the sport's ambition to decarbonise by 2030 is not unrealistic.
The new head of Japan and Southeast Asia for ClientEarth tells the Eco-Business Podcast how the law can be used to hold polluters to account in the world's biggest emitting region. She also says it's time the legal profession faced scrutiny for greenwashing.
Japan-based academic Kim Schumacher, who coined the term "competence greenwashing", believes that the pursuit of societal harmony might be standing in the way of Asia calling out greenwashing. He tells the Eco-Business Podcast how exaggerated ESG claims are likely to be tackled in 2023 and beyond.
Former Monetary Authority of Singapore sustainability chief Darian McBain and recruiter Paddy Balfour tell the Eco-Business podcast why people are exaggerating their ESG expertise and why that's a problem in a key region for sustainable development.