Greenwashing Risks for the Luxembourg Real Estate Sector

Climate change is disrupting living conditions and economic activities with increasing frequency. This has led the public opinion to raise awareness of the issue and put pressure on governments and companies to take seriously risks stemming from the worsening of climate conditions due to the overexploitation of natural resources and excessive pollution of the planet. In this context, the real estate sector is perceived globally as the most polluting sector and the one characterised by the highest level of complexity for the achievement of an effective decarbonisation within EU and global targets. As a result, it can be inferred that this sector is largely exposed to greenwashing in the way that consumers’ preferences do not match the offers or declarations of operators regarding the environmental sustaina- bility of their products and services. This study aims to identify greenwashing risks in the real estate sector by taking Luxembourg as a reference country within a broader European perspective as the EU has shown a proactive stance towards the challenge of the transition to the ‘Net Zero’ both from the financing and regulatory point of view. In fact, the legal analysis undertaken in this article will reveal that legislation at the EU level acts as a bond and an inspirer for national strategies and objectives aimed at countering the phenomenon of greenwashing.