ESAs launch Call for Evidence to better understand greenwashing

On 15 November 2022, the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) published a Call for Evidence on greenwashing. 

The ESAs are interested in collecting:

• views from stakeholders on how to understand greenwashing and what the main drivers of greenwashing might be;
  
  
• examples of potential greenwashing practices; and
  
  
• any available data to help the ESAs gain a concrete sense of the scale of greenwashing and identify areas of high risks.

The deadline for submissions is 10 January 2023. Contributions will feed into the ESAs’ finding for their progress reports due in May 2023, and final reports due in May 2024.

The ESAs invite all interested parties to contribute to the survey, including financial institutions under the remit of the three ESAs and other stakeholders ranging from retail investors and consumers associations to NGOs and academia.

According to the paper, the work for this request for input can be structured in the following main areas:

1. clearly defining greenwashing and better understanding the phenomenon, its scale and potential related risks;
2. taking stock of the implementation of relevant sustainable finance legislation within the remit of the ESAs and identifying early challenges for stakeholders and regulators;
3. mapping out various aspects of the supervisory response and assessing its adequacy from both a legal and a practical standpoint; and
4. issuing recommendations based on findings within the areas referred to above.

The ESAs press release is available here.