greenwashing prevails in the energy industry

With the increasing environmental interest these days, one of the requirements that companies are considered to vitally have is eco-friendliness. In fact, according to The Global Sustainability Study 2022, 66 percent of consumers considered sustainability an important factor in their purchases. However, negatively, in order to appeal to these consumers, a growing number of companies are advocating eco-friendliness even though they are not actually eco-friendly. The term "green washing" is when companies manipulate or exaggerate environmental images related to environmental protection, which means disguising the eco-friendliness of a company, product, or service. According to Greenpeace's "Casual Environmentalism of Large Enterprises Infusing Social Media" report, which investigates greenwashing on social media and includes analysis results, 165 companies in Korea posted greenwashing posts on Instagram for a year from April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, with 80 of them in the oil refining, chemical, and energy sectors. In particular, in the energy sector, energy generation, which actually has a negative impact on the environment is packaged as if it were eco-friendly by abusing labels such as "eco-friendliness," "eco," and "green," . Green thermal power and green nuclear power are typical examples. No matter how much thermal power uses carbon capture technology and nuclear power emits little carbon in the process, it cannot be more eco-friendly than renewable energy because of the presence of ultrafine dust and nuclear waste. This can increase corporate profits, but it is limited, uncertain, expensive, and delays carbon neutrality through decarbonization, which is currently the most pressing issue. So, we need to make sure to knows about greenwashing, and by having the ability to distinguish between firms that do green wahing and don't, make corporations really contribute to the environment. To do this, we can learn words that is suspected as green washing, such as climate neutrality, carbon neutrality, and 100% CO2 compensation, and pay attention to phrases that are missing the reference point, such as '50% reduction by 2030'.