The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is to tighten rules on companies claiming to be carbon neutral using offsets.

After a six-month review, it said it would put companies using terms such as 'carbon neutral', 'net zero' and 'nature positive' under the microscope to prove their claims, it was reported in The Guardian newspaper. The ASA had already cracked down on airlines Lufthansa and Etihad about 'green' claims.

There is growing concern that companies are 'greenwashing' their activites by buying carbon credits which do little to help the environment. At the start of 2023, the German weekly newspaper, Die Zeit, The Guardian and SourceMaterial (a non-profit investigative journalism organisation) found that more than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by the world's leading certifier were worthless.

The investigation showed that Verra, which operated the world’s leading carbon standard, had little impact, despite being widely used by major companies such as Shell, BP and Apple for environmental claims. The findings were strongly disputed by Verra at the time, which is in the process of launching a new methodology for certifying rainforest carbon credits.

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Companies such as Gucci, a luxury Italian brand which turned over £9bn in 2022, recently dropped its claim to be carbon neutral, despite setting out a vision for Net Zero in 2018. Meanwhile, last year Easyjet also dropped claims for offsetting emissions.