Why greenwashing needs to be tackled?

Good morning

Last week, the winner of Vuoden huiputus – a Greenpeace poll for the most aggravated greenwashing advert – was elected. Finnair's ad scored first place with its claim about reducing 80 % of emissions with renewable fuels. However, in 2022 Finnair used renewable aviation fuel only in 0.2 % of its refuelings (HS).

The second place went to the "Metsien Suomi" communication campaign funded by Forestry Ltd, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and other forestry actors. Their campaign aimed to influence the public's image of the use of forests. UPM received third place for its campaign with a similar message.

Greenwashing is defined as the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service. Misleading green marketing can thus appear as ambiguous, exaggerated or dishonest claims regarding the environment. Greenwashing is not a new phenomenon, but it has recently gained more attention as consciousness of environmental issues has spread among a wider audience.

Last month, the European Commission released 'Proposals for a Directive on Green Claims.' The commission proposal aims to reduce the use of uncovered environmental claims in marketing practices and improve consumers' rights to make sustainable consumption choices by:

• Creating cohesive rules for using green claims;

• the claims need to be independently verified and proven with scientific evidence.

• Imposing effective sanctions for breaking the act

• Restricting the use of eco-labels

Creating a sustainable image has become a marketing asset for businesses as the consumer climate increasingly appreciates environmental values. In some cases, however, the distinction between truthful green marketing and greenwashing can be blurry even to people working in the field of sustainability – let alone the average consumer. That's why it is crucial to raise awareness of greenwashing and define coherent legislation for green claims; clear rules will benefit consumers, sustainable businesses, and the environment.

EU's Carbon Allowance (ETS) price development

UK's Carbon Allowance (ETS) price development

HS | Tero Mustonen receives the highly-valued Goldman prize for grassroots action advancing nature conservation. Mustonen founded Snowchange Cooperative, which focuses on restoration measures by aiming to rehabilitate entire areas of private land. According to Mustonen, land use discussion in Finland is often black and white: alternatives are either complete protection measures or maximum land use. He aims to create a third way of managing the environment and natural resource use.

Reuters | EU gives green light to revamp Europe's main climate policy. EU countries on Tuesday gave the final approval to the biggest revamp to date of Europe's carbon market, which is the bloc's main tool for cutting carbon dioxide emissions. The decision means that industries will face higher costs for pollution, and EU imports will face a CO2 levy.

• Reuters | EU Council and European Parliament reach provisional deal on decarbonising aviation sector. The Council of the European Union and the European Parliament said on Wednesday that a provisional, political agreement had been reached on proposals aimed at decarbonising the aviation sector. The proposal aims to increase both demand for and supply of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), while ensuring a level playing field across the EU air transport market.

Euronews | EEA: Air pollution is killing 1,200 children and teenagers in Europe each year. Air pollution also significantly increases the risk of disease later in life. Despite improvements in recent years, the level of key air pollutants in many European countries remains “stubbornly above” World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, the report warns.

The Guradian | John Kerry: Relying on technology to remove carbon dioxide is dangerous. The US climate envoy says existing measures, such as the shift to renewable energy, must be deployed faster to stop global warming. He stated in an interview that new technologies may not prevent the world from passing tipping points. Tipping points are critical thresholds that, once passed, could trigger a cascade of unstoppable physical effects.

Aljazeera | China approves coal surge despite emissions pledge -Greenpeace report. China has approved a surge in coal power this year, prioritising energy supplies over its pledge to reduce emissions from fossil fuels. The world’s second-largest economy is also its biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases driving climate change; the country's emissions pledges are seen as essential to keeping global temperature rises well below 2 degrees Celsius. The findings raise concerns regarding the Chinese 2060 carbon neutrality goal.

PBS | Spain pleads for EU crisis funds as extreme drought hits farmers. Spain's Agricultural Minister wrote to the European Commissioner for Agriculture on Monday to plead for aid for Spain’s 890,000 farm workers, including from the bloc’s agricultural crisis reserve and unused rural development funds. Currently, 27 percent of Spanish territory is classified as in drought emergency or alert.

HS | Report: 1400 valuable natural forests found in state-owned commercial forests. A voluntary Luonnonryhmä working group has mapped the areas, having already found 58 000 hectares of natural forest on state land. The report suggests an immediate logging prohibition in naturally valuable areas.

HS | Finnish forests will receive 'age limits.' Last month, the EU adopted new guidelines to support tree-planting actions and to protect old-growth forests. Now Finland is working on definitions and thresholds for what will constitute old-growth forests in the national context.

Yle | Longer growing season, new crop varieties – climate change benefits farmers in the North. With the growing season continuing for 2–3 longer than before, the warming climate benefits agriculture practitioners in Lapland. However, warming temperatures cause difficulties for forestry as frost-free soil makes harvesting more difficult.

HS | Clearing out of Orivesi mine begins next week - the police suspect aggravated environmental damage. The investigation concerns storing waste in a mine shaft; the Pirkanmaa ELY Centre sees that the landfill breaks the law.

Reuters | Norway's oil fund to vote against climate resolution at BP. Norway's sovereign wealth fund said it will vote against a resolution, issued by an environmental group, calling on British oil major BP to adopt tougher greenhouse gas targets. Norway's $1.4 trillion sovereign wealth fund is one of the world's largest investors.

Nord News | Norway is among the world’s top 10 most sustainable fashion-conscious countries. New research from JewerlyBox focused on which countries are most sustainable when it comes to the fashion industry, as well as which countries’ consumers are most interested in sustainable fashion.

Aktuell Hållbarhet | 71 % of Swedes want a sharper climate policy. A climate barometer by WWF shows a considerable increase in the percentage of Swedes who want politicians to act for the climate - especially outside the big cities.

Yle | Bio-waste must soon be sorted in single-family houses as well. The obligation to collect bio-waste will be extended to all residential buildings in areas of more than 10 000 inhabitants at the end of next year latest.

STT | MEP Heidi Hautala: The Parliament has reached an encouraging compromise on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDD). The Union's Legal Affairs Committee has made some improvements to the Commission's proposal, bringing the bill more in line with the UN guiding principles on business and human rights. The Parliament will adopt its final position on the directive at the second plenary session in May.

Reuters | South Pole, Mitsubishi’s NextGen buy major tranche of CO2 removal credits. NextGen, a joint venture owned by Swiss carbon project developer South Pole and Mitsubishi Corporation, will buy almost 200,000 tonnes of carbon removal credits from three projects to help drive down the cost of the technology.

STT | Insurance company If halved the number of business flights last year. New remote meeting practices and more sustainable travel guidelines helped the Nordics' biggest insurance company reduce travel-related emissions.

STT | Schneider Electric reduced its carbon footprint with an ambitious environmental program in 2022. Since 2018, Schneider Electric, a specialist in energy management and automation solutions, has reduced its customers' global carbon emissions by 440 million tonnes, with 90 million tonnes in 2022 alone.

Wildfire and degradation accelerate northern peatland carbon release. The northern peatland carbon sink plays a vital role in climate regulation; however, the future of the carbon sink is uncertain, in part, due to the changing interactions of peatlands and wildfire. Here, the researchers have used empirical datasets from natural, degraded and restored peatlands in non-permafrost boreal and temperate regions to model net ecosystem exchange and methane fluxes, integrating peatland degradation status, wildfire combustion and post-fire dynamics. They found that wildfire processes reduced carbon uptake in pristine peatlands by 35% and further enhanced emissions from degraded peatlands by 10%. The current small net sink is vulnerable to the interactions of peatland degraded area, burn rate and peat burn severity. Climate change impacts accelerated carbon losses, where increased burn severity and burn rate reduced the carbon sink by 38% and 65%, respectively, by 2100. However, the study demonstrates the potential for active peatland restoration to buffer these impacts. (Nature)

Scientists save ancient Arctic ice in race to preserve climate history. Scientists have succeeded in saving samples of ancient Arctic ice for analysis in a race against time before it melts away due to climate change. The eight French, Italian and Norwegian researchers camped in Norway's Svalbard archipelago in March and April, braving storms and mishaps to preserve crucial ice records that can be used to analyse what the Earth's climate looked like in the past and chart the devastating impact human activity is having on it now. The Ice Memory Foundation team extracted three huge tubes of glacier ice on Svalbard. They, like others collected by the 20-year project launched in 2015, will be preserved for future scientific analysis at a research station in Antarctica. Analysing chemicals in such deep "ice cores" provides valuable data about centuries of past climatic and environmental conditions, long after the original glacier has disappeared. (Phys.org)

WMO annual report highlights continuous advance of climate change. From mountain peaks to ocean depths, climate change continued its advance in 2022, according to the annual report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Droughts, floods and heatwaves affected communities on every continent and cost many billions of dollars. Antarctic sea ice fell to its lowest extent on record and the melting of some European glaciers was, literally, off the charts. "Due to the immense carbon dioxide emissions, we have already lost hope for halting the melting of glaciers" said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas at a briefing. (WMO)

Picture of the week

Last Generation climate activists sit on the Formula E race track in front of the race cars ready to start in Germany