Abstract
This paper contributes to legal research in securities market regulation by exploring how New Zealand’s climate disclosure regime provides an opportunity for greenwashing. This question is answered through a real time examination of the theoretical incoherence within the regulatory regime, the resulting potential for intentional and unintentional greenwashing in the financial markets, and the impact of this on enforcement. Chapter I gives a summary of the general disclosure framework, the climate disclosure regime and greenwashing regulation in New Zealand. Chapter II analyses the first layer of incoherence within the regulation, in which the target audience of disclosure and thus the required substance of disclosure remains unclear. Chapter III provides a second layer of incoherence by examining the legal content and how this gives rise to a regulatory jungle that businesses must navigate through. Chapter IV applies these two layers of incoherence to the enforcement regime and evaluates the effectiveness of the FMA’s likely response to greenwashing.