Library | Sustainable Finance Practices

Effective communication and greenwash

Tools and strategies for transparent communication on sustainability performance, with guidance on identifying and preventing greenwashing and advancing consumer education and financial literacy.

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Sustainable investment funds: Design, implementation, monitoring and communication of sustainability attributes

The British Standards Institution (BSI)
PAS 7342:2025 sets out specifications for designing, implementing, monitoring and communicating sustainability attributes of sustainable investment funds. It provides requirements to support clear objectives, governance, evidence, disclosures and labelling, aiming to reduce greenwashing and improve consistency in fund communication.
Research
19 March 2025

Limited accountability and awareness of corporate emissions target outcomes

The study analyses 1,041 corporate emissions targets ending in 2020, finding limited accountability. Thirty-one per cent of targets disappeared and 9% failed, with minimal disclosure, media attention or market penalties. By contrast, target announcements improved media sentiment and ESG scores, raising concerns for future climate targets.
Research
21 January 2025

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

Academic Institutions
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism is a global research centre at University of Oxford examining the future of news and journalism. It publishes influential reports, data, and analysis on media trust, digital news consumption, and industry trends, supporting journalists, researchers, and policymakers worldwide through evidence-based academic research programmes.
Organisation
1 research item

The (mis)use of scenarios in fossil fuel and industry climate disclosures

Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility
The report analyses climate disclosures by investor-owned carbon majors, finding widespread misuse of climate scenarios to claim Paris alignment. Common issues include outdated scenarios, opaque assumptions and misleading aggregation, which obscure transition risks and may misinform investor decision-making.
Research
28 March 2025

Information integrity about climate science: A systematic review

International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE)
Systematic review of 300 studies (2015-2025) finds coordinated misinformation and greenwashing by corporate, political, and media actors undermine climate science, eroding trust and delaying policy. Research is Global North–centric. Evidence supports regulation, litigation, coalitions, and education to strengthen information integrity.
Research
19 June 2025

International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE)

Issue Focused NGOs & Think Tanks
International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) is an independent, non-profit scientific organisation based in Switzerland providing policymakers, industry and civil society with actionable scientific assessments on threats to the global information environment, including disinformation, AI bias and algorithmic manipulation. Hundreds of researchers contribute to IPIE’s reports.
Organisation
1 research item

Beliefs about the climate impact of green investing

Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE
The study finds retail investors substantially overestimate green funds’ climate impact compared with academic experts, mainly due to limited understanding of financial-market transmission. Providing expert information lowers investors’ impact beliefs and willingness to pay, indicating misaligned expectations may drive capital towards products with limited real-world emissions effects.
Research
5 December 2025

Corporate sustainability reporting

This conceptual paper examines corporate sustainability reporting, distinguishing investor-focused sustainability-related financial disclosure from broader impact reporting. It argues investor interests are imperfectly aligned with societal goals and concludes that complementary financial and impact reporting standards are needed to support accountability, capital allocation and sustainability transition.
Research
23 January 2025

Navigating the corporate ego: Understanding the association between ESG performance and organizational narcissistic rhetoric

This study analyses 1,659 FTSE 350 observations to explore the link between ESG performance and organisational narcissistic rhetoric. Findings indicate that high ESG performance correlates with increased self-promoting language, though greater board gender diversity mitigates this effect. Additionally, strong financial results are positively associated with narcissistic corporate narratives.
Research
14 July 2025

Sustainable Finance Roundup November 2025: Transition Turning Points and Rising Accountability

This month’s sustainable-finance roundup highlights faster transition momentum, rising physical risks and a tightening focus on accountability. COP30 reinforced expectations for stronger 2035 targets, while national actions underscored diverging paths toward decarbonisation. Markets continued shifting toward clean energy and resilience, and new science made climate harms more visible. With regulatory scrutiny and litigation increasing, transition credibility and real-economy resilience are becoming core drivers of financial risk and investment decisions.
Article
1 December 2025

On YouTube, a Shift from Denying Science to Dismissing Solutions

This article dives into an analysis of over 12,000 YouTube videos and finds that while outright climate-change denial is dropping, content undermining climate solutions and trust in scientists is rising sharply. It also highlights concerns over YouTube’s ad policies, which still allow monetisation alongside videos that downplay impacts or spread misleading claims about climate policy.
Article
18 November 2025

The new climate denial: How social media platforms and content producers profit by spreading new forms of climate denial

Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH)
Climate denial on YouTube has shifted from rejecting global heating to undermining climate impacts, solutions, and science. New Denial now represents most claims, while Old Denial has declined. The report highlights platform monetisation of such content and calls for updated policies and stronger action to address evolving misinformation.
Research
16 January 2024

Greenwashing, net-zero, and the oil sands in Canada: The case of Pathways Alliance

This article analyses how Canada’s Pathways Alliance representing 95 % of oil sands output frames its net-zero commitments. Reviewing 183 public communications, it finds widespread indicators of greenwashing, including selective disclosure, unverifiable claims, and poor accountability. The study urges broader scrutiny of coordinated industry communication across digital and public relations platforms.
Research
10 June 2024

Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH)

Issue Focused NGOs & Think Tanks
Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to combating online hate speech and misinformation through evidence-based research, targeted campaigns and policy advocacy. It investigates how social media platforms enable abusive content and works to promote safer digital spaces for all.
Organisation
2 research items

From values to value: The commensuration of sustainability reporting and the crowding out of morality

This study examines the evolution of sustainability reporting in the Netherlands, showing how moral intentions of corporate responsibility became standardised and financialised. Through commensuration, sustainability shifted from ethical values to measurable economic indicators, leading to a “crowding out of morality” as reporting prioritised comparability, performance, and investor relevance over genuine moral purpose.
Research
1 March 2023

The future of emissions

This report proposes using firm-level emission futures contracts to better measure and incentivise real environmental impact from ESG investing. It finds that current backward-looking ESG ratings fail to predict emission reductions and may misallocate capital to higher-polluting firms. Market-based, forward-looking emission futures could improve measurement, incentives, and investment impact.
Research
30 January 2024
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