Questions and Answers
What is Climate Whistleblowers?
Climate Whistleblowers (CW) is an NGO dedicated to protecting individuals who expose wrongdoings that worsen the climate crisis and ensuring their disclosures are impactful. We are lawyers, journalists, and activists putting our expertise at the service of climate whistleblowers, taking strategic action on their behalf whenever possible.
What is #GreenFakes?
CW reviewed hundreds of leaked documents revealing how environmental consultancy firms, including France’s Biotope and Britain’s The Biodiversity Consultancy (TBC), produced mediocre reports, if not biased, that helped multinationals justify environmentally and humanly harmful activities.
The documents:
- Confirmed the presence of rich biodiversity in the project areas.
- Acknowledged the significant harm caused by the projects.
- Revealed the consultants’ lack of independence vis à vis their clients.
- Demonstrated a complete lack of ambition in addressing the urgent environmental challenges, with inadequate or even absurd mitigation measures.
CW partnered with journalists from Mediapart, Africa Uncensored, and Mongabay to investigate each case thoroughly and bring these issues to light. The findings expose in detail how companies like TotalEnergies, Rio Tinto and Chanel used these flawed audits to gain approval for their destructive projects, particularly in the Global South, where weaker regulations make it easier to bypass accountability.
What does GreenFakes show?
The investigation reveals a pattern of environmental and human rights abuses committed by multinationals and their collusion with auditing firms, which helps them downplay ecological harm and avoid accountability.
What is an “environmental audit”?
An environmental audit is an assessment that evaluates a project’s environmental and social impact. Specialised companies conduct these audits, typically including biodiversity studies, pollution assessments, and action plans to ensure that companies comply with environmental regulations and minimise harm to ecosystems and communities.
Environmental audits were created to assess and mitigate environmental impact and ensure that industrial projects do not cause irreversible ecological damage. They play a crucial role in decision-making processes, as they help governments and investors notably to understand the risks and necessary precautions before they approve a project. When conducted properly, these audits serve as a key environmental protection tool. For an audit to be credible and effective, it must be independent, comprehensive, thorough and science-based – relying on robust data and expert analysis. However, as GreenFakes reveals, some environmental auditing firms manipulate them to serve their clients’ interests rather than protect the environment.
How do projects get approved?
Companies must prove that their projects meet specific environmental and social standards set by funders to receive funding.
For example, the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Performance Standard 6 (PS6), focuses on biodiversity conservation and the sustainable management of natural resources. Companies need to prove compliance with PS6 if they want to receive IFC funding. They thus have to submit various documents such as:
- Biodiversity Action Plans (BAPs): These assess a project’s impact on biodiversity and outline measures to minimise harm. A BAP describes how the ecological characteristics of the project area will be protected, managed, and optimised throughout construction and operation.
- Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Management Plans (BESMPs): Similar to BAPs, these documents also include strategies for managing ecosystem services—the benefits natural ecosystems provide people, such as clean water, fertile soil, and carbon storage.
Among the leaked documents in GreenFakes, CW found several BAPs and BESMPs prepared by environmental auditing firms to help companies meet PS6 requirements.
A verification process typically follows these steps:
What evidence supports the GreenFakes investigation?
The findings are based on hundreds of leaked internal documents, including contracts and internal meeting minutes from environmental auditing firms. Many of these documents reveal direct instructions to downplay environmental damage and prioritise project approval over genuine ecological protection.
Extensive research was conducted to verify the findings. Journalists carried out on-site investigations and interviewed affected communities and environmental experts. CW and investigative journalists then utilised open-source intelligence (OSINT) and satellite imagery to confirm the environmental impact. Additionally, biodiversity action plans and biodiversity and ecosystem management plans produced by the implicated auditing firms were analysed in detail to pinpoint the significant gaps and inconsistencies.
When journalists contacted the implicated companies, giving them the right to reply, they denied any wrongdoings.
Why does this matter? What’s at stake?
When reading revelations like this, we often ask ourselves: How is this possible? Who allowed this to happen? How is no one controlling this?
This is a clear example of a system failing due to a lack of oversight. Checks and balances are essential to ensuring responsible environmental practices. Unfortunately, the auditing industry operates with little to no regulation, allowing firms to set their own rules and prioritise corporate interests over environmental protection. This lack of accountability enables companies to greenwash harmful projects, putting ecosystems and vulnerable communities at risk while undermining global climate efforts.
Whistleblowing is essential in revealing hidden information. Without those willing to speak out, these manipulations would remain buried, and corporations would continue business as usual with no consequences. With crucial inside information, whistleblowers play a crucial role in holding powerful actors accountable and protecting our planet’s future.
What can I do?
Fighting for a world with real accountability is more urgent than ever. Without public pressure, these schemes will continue unchecked. At CW, we work to expose these injustices by working with whistleblowers, journalists, and researchers to bring the truth to light. But we can’t do it alone. Your support enables us to continue investigating and exposing deception.
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