There’s a strange thing happening in South Asia right now. Walk through parts of Dhaka or outside Delhi, and you’ll spot the signs everywhere — solar panels glittering on rooftops, billboards with glossy words like “eco-smart,” “net zero,” and “green future.”

Official speeches are filled with talk of clean growth. Corporate social media is bursting with photos of saplings being planted, plastic being recycled, and emissions being offset. It’s a shiny image. Polished, optimistic, very Instagram-friendly. And, in many cases, not even close to the truth.

Ground reality is different

Behind all the climate talk, the reality on the ground tells a different story — one of toxic rivers, coal-fired power plants still humming, and industries doing everything they can to look green without changing much of anything. What we’re seeing isn’t climate leadership. It’s corporate theater. And increasingly, it’s playing out across the Global South with dangerous precision.

Greenwashing — the term for this — is hardly new. But in South Asia, it’s evolving into something more sophisticated, and arguably more harmful. Here, it doesn’t just confuse consumers; rather, it distorts development itself. It lets polluting industries parade as climate champions, while the people actually affected by floods, rising temperatures, and poisoned water are left out of the picture altogether.

Take Bangladesh, for example. The country is now celebrated for having more “green factories” — by certification count — than anywhere else. You’ll see foreign buyers applauding the country’s commitment to eco-conscious fashion. Yet, in those same industrial zones, the water tells a darker tale.

Testing around Dhaka’s textile hubs found levels of PFAS — known as “forever chemicals” — that would never pass in Europe or the U.S. These substances are linked to cancer and take decades to break down, with one sample from the Karnatali River registering over 300 times the proposed EU limit for PFOA and PFOS combined.

But they’re still flowing into rivers where children play and families depend on fish for food. The factories may have earned their plaques, but the ecosystem is still paying the price.

The contradiction isn’t subtle. It’s out in the open. And Bangladesh isn’t alone.

Fossil operations continue

In India, corporate giants are pouring money into solar farms and hyping carbon-neutral offices. Yet at the same time, coal remains the backbone of the national grid. Even as the country positions itself as a leader in renewable energy, coal projects keep getting approved.

Many are branded with clever phrases — “clean coal,” “transition fuel,” “energy security” — but they’re still burning carbon. And in several cases, the same companies claiming to fund green infrastructure have been caught channeling that money right back into fossil operations.

Last year’s expose involving the Adani Group revealed just how murky this can get. Bonds issued under the label of sustainability were ultimately used to support the group’s sprawling coal businesses. On paper, it all seemed progressive. In practice, it was business as usual — just better disguised.

And then there’s the Belt and Road narrative. In Pakistan and Bangladesh, Chinese-backed infrastructure has been sold as development aid, with some plants even painted as symbols of bilateral friendship. But nearly 70% of the announced energy capacity under Pakistan’s flagship China-Pakistan Economic Corridor comes from coal. Many of these plants are locked in for decades. The label says “growth,” but the emissions say otherwise.

Corporate spin and deception

It’s tempting to chalk this all up to corporate spin — and sure, there’s plenty of that. But the real enabler is the broader system in which this kind of deception thrives.

In countries where regulatory agencies are underfunded or politically constrained, there’s little chance that a flashy sustainability report will be rigorously checked. Many companies know this. They know that if they put a solar panel on the roof, no one will ask too many questions about what’s happening in the basement.

There’s also the economic angle. Governments need foreign capital. And in regions where industries like textiles or energy dominate job creation, few politicians are eager to chase away investment over environmental concerns. If a firm says it's going green, that claim is often taken at face value — not because it’s believed, but because it’s convenient to believe it.

Meanwhile, consumers in wealthier countries play an unwitting role in all this. They want sustainable products. That’s a good thing. But the demand has created a market where companies are rewarded more for appearing sustainable than for actually reducing harm.

A recycled tag on a t-shirt, a carbon offset on a flight — it feels like progress. But if the shirt was made with water-intensive dyes that polluted a river in Punjab, or the offset was double-counted, then what’s really been achieved?

The problem isn’t just false advertising. It’s that these narratives block real progress. Every dollar spent on a greenwashed project is a dollar not spent on genuine change. Every headline about a “net-zero” company that’s still digging for coal delays the public pressure needed to demand better. And every photo op with a tree planting allows a much bigger environmental cost to go unexamined.

Fixing this won’t be simple. But some steps are obvious — and overdue.

Media and civil society watchdogs

For starters, governments in South Asia need stronger guardrails. It’s not enough to let companies self-declare sustainability. There have to be enforceable standards — with consequences for misleading claims. India has taken a step in this direction with new guidelines against greenwashing in consumer goods. That’s promising. But the rules need teeth, and they need to apply across sectors.

Equally important is the role of independent media and civil society. Investigative reporting has already exposed some of the biggest contradictions. But reporters and activists need protection and support. Many face legal threats or worse. They’re doing the work that regulators often can’t or won’t do.

Internationally, the onus falls on both donors and investors. Climate finance must be tied to measurable outcomes, not just tidy language. Green bonds should come with real audits. And when wealthy governments buy carbon credits in the Global South, they need to verify that those offsets are actually cutting emissions — not just shifting them around.

Most of all, we need to stop letting PR pass for policy. The climate crisis isn’t waiting. In South Asia, it’s already arrived — in the form of droughts, deadly heatwaves, and flash floods. These are not future risks. They’re happening now. And for communities facing those impacts, a corporation’s sustainability page doesn’t count for much.

This region deserves better than slogans. It deserves action that doesn’t just sound good but does good — for the air, for the water, and for the people whose lives are tied to both.

(The author is a Bangladeshi law student and researcher focusing on technology and gender justice in South Asia. Views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at  ibrahimkhalilullah010@gmail.com )