ABSTRACT
Facing the climate crisis and the urgency to act, financial markets have become active and vocal about their engagement to become more sustainable and to transition toward a carbon-neutral future. Adorned by the term “sustainable finance” (SF), the financial industry offers seemingly new products and investments that are said to finance a green and sustainable economy. However, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and activists have often accused the financial industry of “greenwashing” about such financing efforts, referring to positive communication about investments despite poor environmental performance. Building upon previous research that has shown that finance and business journalists failed in their watchdog role during the Great Financial Crisis 2007–2009, this chapter scrutinizes the role of journalists in covering SF and answers to the following questions: How do journalists write about SF? What are the topics and actors referred to when covering the topic? How do they perceive their own role in covering SF on financial markets? How do they deal with greenwashing? And what are the challenges that financial/business journalism is facing regarding greenwashing on the financial markets?
