Systemic Greenwashing in Sustainable Finance: How EU Regulations Launder Carbon-Intensive Assets Into Sustainable Investments

This article introduces the concept of systemic greenwashing. Drawing on original empirical analysis of “green” investment funds with the European Union’s highest sustainability classification, it addresses the striking paradox that portfolios classified by EU regulations as “green” are drastically more carbon intensive than those with no sustainability objectives, despite no evidence of falsified disclosures. Combining close analysis of EU regulations with detailed case studies of corporations that dominate “green” portfolios, the article demonstrates that greenwashing in this context is not the result of corporate deception or weak enforcement, but is instead performed by regulatory processes which reclassify carbon-intensive corporate activities into sustainable contributions to decarbonisation. The implications for criminology are significant, reframing greenwashing as a structural form of state-corporate harm.