Greenwashing in the oil and gas sector: the limitations of climate change litigation on advertising in Brazil

Abstract Brazil is at the forefront of action on greenwashing. In 2011, the Brazilian Advertising Self-Regulation Council (CONAR) established rules on greenwashing, which, over the last decade, it has relied on in almost a hundred cases. This study focuses on the application of these rules on environmental and climate claims issued by the oil and gas sector in the same jurisdiction. More precisely, it shows that the CONAR system suffers from multiple loopholes that undermine its effectiveness in dealing with greenwashing cases, and, as a result, misleading communication in the sector remains unaddressed. As an alternative way forward, this article suggests that greenwashing may be more authoritatively deliberated by the judiciary rather than by a regime of self-regulation.