Support our campaign to stop greenwashing

Update – May 2025: We’ve achieved a major win. EnergyAustralia has agreed to settle our landmark greenwashing case and has publicly admitted to the key facts about their misleading marketing claims. This is a huge win for parent power—and a warning shot to other polluters misleading the public.

Enough is enough: we’re calling out polluters for greenwashing

As parents committed to a safe climate for our children, we strive to make responsible choices. However, companies like EnergyAustralia have made this challenging by falsely marketing polluting products as ‘carbon neutral’.

In a landmark development, our legal action led to a settlement where EnergyAustralia publicly admitted that carbon offsets do not prevent or undo the harms caused by burning fossil fuels. They have ceased offering their 'Go Neutral' product to new customers and removed related marketing from their website.

This is a significant victory against greenwashing, demonstrating the power of parent-led action.

This win has put the industry on notice—but we need your help to keep up the pressure. Join us as we fight for honest climate claims, consumer protection, and a future free from fossil fuel spin.

👉 Donate now or get involved to power our next wave of action.

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We held EnergyAustralia to account for greenwashing—and won

Energy giant EnergyAustralia had been marketing electricity and gas from fossil fuels as ‘carbon neutral’, claiming they can ‘offset’ that pollution. But so-called ‘offsets’ are a type of marketing spin that enables companies to continue polluting, without making genuine cuts to their pollution.

It’s our job as parents to stand up for our kids, and to teach them there are consequences for misleading behaviour.

So we took EnergyAustralia to court, arguing that they have engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct. In a successful resolution, we forced EnergyAustralia to admit to the key facts of our case through a powerful public statement and an email to its customers. The company admitted that offsets should not be used to delay or diminish the important work needed to actively decarbonise. This outcome sets a precedent, signaling that misleading climate claims will not go unchallenged

Join us in holding all energy companies accountable

While we've made significant progress with EnergyAustralia, the fight against greenwashing continues. We need your support to ensure all energy companies provide transparent and truthful information about their environmental impact.

That’s why we need you - and the people you can connect with - to sign our open letter calling on all power companies to stop greenwashing.

Sign the open letter demanding honesty and accountability from all power providers and be a part of Parents for Climate holding these companies to account.

Are you wanting to know more about the case and what this means to Carbon claims and Climate Integrity?

Get the Carbon Claims & Integrity Toolkit + access to our expert webinar on the Parents for Climate v. EnergyAustralia settlement.

A must-have for communicators, campaigners & legal advocates.

👉 Click here to download the toolkit and recording

Parents for Climate CEO, Nic Seton, and supporters, outside the Law Courts in Sydney

Why we took legal action

As Australia's leading climate advocacy charity for parents, carers, families—and everyone who cares about a safe future for kids—we took EnergyAustralia to court for misleading families with false climate claims, all while continuing to pollute our children’s future.

Our case challenged EnergyAustralia—Australia’s third-largest polluter—over its marketing of ‘Go Neutral’ electricity and gas products. These products were promoted as “carbon neutral,” despite being powered by fossil fuels, including from the highly polluting Yallourn coal-fired power station.

This was the first legal case of its kind in Australia, targeting consumer product marketing that falsely claimed “carbon neutrality.”

In May 2025, we achieved a major breakthrough: the case was settled, and EnergyAustralia publicly admitted that carbon offsets do not prevent the harm caused by burning fossil fuels. They have removed their misleading “Go Neutral” marketing and stopped offering the product to new customers.

This is a huge win for truth, transparency—and parent power. It sends a clear message to other polluters: greenwashing won't go unchallenged.

As parents, we believe companies must tell the truth about the climate impact of fossil fuels and empower Australians to choose genuine clean, renewable energy.

What is greenwashing?

Greenwashing is when companies use marketing spin to make themselves or their products seem more environmentally friendly than they actually are.

A particularly harmful form of greenwashing happens when fossil fuel companies claim to be part of the climate solution—even as they continue to drive the crisis. These deceptive tactics mislead families, distort markets, and delay the urgent action needed to reduce emissions.

While governments around the world are cracking down on greenwashing—with the EU introducing new legislation in March 2024—Australia’s regulations have yet to catch up. And Australian consumers are being left high and dry.

Our case exposed how EnergyAustralia used the term “carbon neutral” to promote fossil fuel-based energy, simply by purchasing carbon credits as so-called "offsets". But science—and common sense—tells us that no amount of offsets can undo or prevent the damage caused by burning coal and gas in the first place.

Offsets don’t make fossil fuels clean. That’s why we stood up and took action. And now, we’ve shown that when parents come together, we can make polluters come clean.

Tell energy companies to come clean about greenwashing.