UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the United Kingdom’s independent regulator of advertising across all media, including print, broadcast, online, and social platforms. Its role is to ensure that advertising is legal, decent, honest, and truthful, protecting consumers from misleading or harmful claims while maintaining fair competition for businesses. In the context of sustainability and climate-related communication, the ASA plays a critical role in tackling greenwashing. It enforces strict rules on environmental claims, requiring that statements about sustainability, carbon reduction, recycling, or environmental impact are clear, accurate, and supported by robust evidence. The authority has increasingly focused on sectors with high environmental footprints, such as energy, transport, and fashion, where misleading claims can distort consumer understanding of progress toward net-zero goals.