Green Growth or Greenwashing? Legal Accountability Gaps in India’s Climate and Sustainability Policy Framework

Entering the 21st century, the Indian subcontinent found itself in a very difficult situation to choose the direction it wants to go. The richest country in the world by population is facing the two extreme poles where one is fast economic growth and the other is turning to nature for survival when the controversies about "Green Growth" have come up, which is the main stream of statefulness and strategy of the company nowadays. This story envisions a future where India would be able to sell off its millions of poor people, turn the whole economy into one that is industrialized, and at the same time, be able to achieve their very high climate targets including the Net Zero emissions pledge of 2070.

The vision trained us to hope against hope that through technical advances and wise policy, the old dilemma of choosing the environment over the economy or vice versa is completely and irrevocably solved. Canada-wide and corporate representatives, however, are doing the opposite by feeding the world with the unsustainable advances behind the curtain that are causing disquiet among them. The government is trumpeting high-decibel and at the same time presenting a more complex and disturbing reality in that it is putting forward the phenomenon of Greenwashing that is gradually taking over the integrity of India's climate response. Artisans did not steal the powers of a few rogue advertisers who blew up their claims, and greenwashing in India has transformed into a governance issue of serious difficulty that has become a part of the system.

For the young advocates, legal researchers, and climate justice supporters, the acknowledgment of this distinction is not a mere intellectual exerciseit is a question of existence. The disparity between the Blue and the Green unbelievable statements and the real-life situation of environmental destruction at the bottom level results in the emergence of a huge accountability gap. It is precisely within this area that the people's lungs in Korba are being filled with fly ash which is falsely called "land reclamation," and the Holy Orans of Rajasthan are being cut off for "green" energy projects which, in turn, are the ones that push the native custodians out of their lands. This study looks at the interplay of environmental law, climate policy, governance, and social justice in India and goes beyond surface critiques to question the structural incentives that promote greenwashing.

India’s Climate Policy Landscape and the Decoupling Debate

India's modern climate policy is significantly influenced by the commitments made at the COP26 summit, thus marking a conspicuous transition from a defensive geopolitical stance to a winning and climate action-friendly stance. The main aspect of this policy is the commitment to Net Zero emissions in 2070, which was explicitly mentioned in the Long-Term Low-Carbon Development Strategy of India that was submitted to the UNFCCC. The other aspects of the vision are the massive increase in renewable energy to 500 GW by 2030 and the investment in Green Hydrogen to help decarbonize hard-to-abate industrial sectors. NITI Aayog portrays this agenda as a "Green Growth" where scenarios are created that demonstrate the possibility of coexistence of economic prosperity with environmental conservation.

Nonetheless, the economic theory of "decoupling"the belief that GDP can grow while emissions decline absolutelyfaces very difficult challenges in the Indian Situation. India has obtained "relative decoupling", where GDP growth is higher than the rise of emissions, but "absolute decoupling" is still not reached. The empirical realities indicate that the efficiency improvements resulting in lower consumption are counteracted by the increased consumption, known as the rebound effect, and the resource-rich states still suffer the most in terms of environmental damage due to extractive growth. The massive coal mining expansion along with the solar park development is a clear case of policy incoherence that is often covered up by green rhetoric.

Understanding Greenwashing and Legal Loopholes

Greenwashing in India has developed from mere marketing exaggerations to a complicated tactic of gaining acceptance for both corporations and the government. The landmark 2024 Guidelines issued by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) classify it as any misleading practice that hides important information with vague, false, or unsubstantiated environmental claims. The occurrence of this phenomenon is through different "sins" in the Indian market like the sin of vagueness, where terms such as "Eco-friendly" or "Natural" are used without scientific support. It is surprising to know that the market research has revealed an overwhelming proportion of green claims in India are either exaggerated or misleading. Apart from vague labeling, the market is full of "Green-hushing," where companies intentionally under-report data to avoid being noticed and "Green-lighting," where a firm shines a little solar power project to divert attention from its main extractive operations.

The legal response of India to this epidemic is the same, though, evolving, it is still fragmented and full of loopholes that the cunning ones exploit. A critical review of the CCPA Guidelines 2024 unearths a major flaw: one of the provisions states "internal verifiable evidence" as a valid form of substantiation. This clause in effect allows companies to self-certify their sustainability claims based on their internal studies, as long as no independent third-party verification for all claims is required. In the same way, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has introduced the ESG disclosures through the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) framework. However, the expert committee's recent recommendations have suggested that the stringent "assurance" requirement for the BRSR Core be reduced to a possibly weaker "assessment" and further have postponed the mandatory assurance for the value chain (Scope 3 emissions). Since Scope 3 usually makes up the largest part of a company's carbon footprint, this regulatory easing allows companies to continue greenwashing their supply chain impacts while enjoying the benefits of being accredited.

Social Justice and Ground-Level Impacts

Greenwashing should not be viewed only as a consumer rights issue; this perspective rather overlooks its most extreme consequences in the Global South. In India, the greenwashing at the policy level is quite often the means to justify the projects that lead to the displacement of people and the destruction of nature. One of the most important examples is the "100% Fly Ash Utilization" rule. The story depicts the poisonous coal ash not as hazardous waste but as a "resource" for the land reclamation process. The Mt. Korba in Chhattisgarh, this policy permits the power plants to carry out their dumping of ash in low-lying regions and mining of dirt-filled voids, all of which results in a constant gray mist that the local people describe as dwelling in a "pile of ashes." Even though the official documentation presents high utilization figures, the actual situation is that of a health crisis with respiratory disease and heavy metal poisoning as the main complaints, all of which have been legitimized under the "eco-friendly" disposal banner.

There is a similar disconnection in the renewable energy sector which is very prominent, as the "Green" label is often given to those projects that do not comply with social safeguards. In the case of the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, the so-called "wastelands" that are meant for solar parks are, in fact, Oranssacred community groves that are home to the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard and that also provide a living for local herders. The "Green" tag on these projects has opened the door for "Green Grabbing," which is the practice of taking over land rich in biodiversity and with indigenous people's rights for the sake of carbon metrics. Accordingly, in the textile town of Tirupur, the "Zero Liquid Discharge" (ZLD) policy is presented as a successful global example. The brands proclaim a clean supply chain; however, the truth is that there is a huge production of toxic solid sludge along with the constant illegal discharges, which is basically moving the pollution from the river to the land and underground water. These examples point to a disconnect in the application of "One Health" principles, where environmental policies have no link with public health outcomes.

Policy Pathways and Conclusion

To close the gap between the promise of green growth and the reality of greenwashing, India needs to go through a major change in the approach from "voluntary compliance" to "mandatory accountability." One of the most important actions is to remove the "internal verifiable evidence" loophole in the CCPA guidelines. All public environmental claims made by large entities should be backed by independent, third-party limited assurance as a regulation, so self-certification does not turn into a trick to fool people. The disjointed regulatory system calls for a uniform Climate Accountability Act that defines "Net Zero" and similar terms consistently and sets up a specific commission with the authority to impose penalties for and to make rulings on misleading climate claims. Besides, the establishment of "One Health" in environmental governance is essential for true accountability. The EIA process ought to be updated to make the HIA for humans compulsory along with the EIA for large projects, thus making sure that the human cost of "green" initiatives is taken into consideration. Moreover, the only way to counter greenwashing is by practicing transparency. The BRSR information released by SEBI should be made available to everyone through a public database with no access restrictions, thus allowing civil society to independently check the truth of corporate claims.

India is currently facing a situation where the aspiration to lead the world in climate matters overlaps with the harsh truth of a developing country. The idea of "Green Growth" not only promises a prosperous future, but also, if properly controlled, may become an umbrella for the existing extractive mindset as it was evidenced in Korba, Rajasthan, and Tirupur. When fly ash becomes a resource while suffocating the nearby towns, and the areas regarded as sacred are taken over for solar farms, the concept of "sustainability" becomes questionable. The struggle against greenwashing is not only about making right the advertisements; it is the struggle over the integrity of the future of India and the safeguarding of the poor communities. Real sustainability cannot be as good as "washed" into being; it has to be assured through the pillars of openness, third-party auditing, and an unyielding adherence to justice.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Tarun Mishra and Shambhawi Tiwari are both third-year law students at the National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi.