In an attempt to put an end to the jungle of fanciful and misleading environmental claims that confuse consumers, the European Commission’s services are working on a long-awaited legislative proposal that would avoid ‘greenwashing’ with a dual objective: to allow consumers to find their way towards sustainable consumption choices and for businesses to benefit from a level playing field in the internal market.
The Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) methodology and organisations is at the heart of the legislative proposal that will establish a framework for substantiating green claims that the European Commission is expected to present on 22 March, if its forward programme is confirmed (see EUROPE 13102/20).
According to a first draft of the text seen by EUROPE, the text would take the form of a directive. “Since it aims to ensure consumer protection in an area regulated by directives, the most appropriate instrument is a directive”, the Commission stresses.
This future European Green Deal directive would complement the proposal for a directive already presented to empower consumers in the green transition and the proposal presented in March on the right of consumers to information on the sustainability of products and the prohibition of greenwashing (see EUROPE 12922/4).
“The aim of this proposal is to enable consumers to act on reliable information about the sustainability of products and traders. Indeed, consumer and business behaviour plays an important role in meeting the objectives of the European Green Deal and the European Climate Law. Consumers lack reliable information about the sustainability of products”, says the European Commission.
The proposed directive aims to ensure that green claims are reliable, comparable and verifiable, based on the PEF method - a life-cycle assessment method for products or organisations’ portfolios, which currently covers 16 product groups, while recognising the validity of the EU Ecolabel and the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme.
The Commission would establish by delegated acts the requirements for non-covered claims.
The future directive would also establish requirements for green labels.
Member States, in turn, would be required to establish claim compliance monitors, which would strengthen market surveillance.
There would also be dissuasive sanctions for companies that violate the rules.
Asked by EUROPE to comment on this first draft of a text that is set to change, Blanca Morales, a European Ecolabel expert from the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), said: “We welcome the recognition of the EU Ecolabel and equivalent ISO Type I labels, such as the Nordic Swan or Blue Angel, as robust schemes rewarding excellent environmental performance, as well as the plans to regulate claims that are not adequately covered by the PEF method through future delegated acts”.
She also hopes that the final proposal “will maintain the obligation for companies to disclose the objective and independent evidence behind their claims, as well as the mandate for market surveillance authorities to regularly verify market claims and fine companies that break the law”.
In the opinion of Dimitri Vergne, Head of the Sustainability Team at the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), “the proposal rightly recognises that the EU Ecolabel and equivalent labels are reliable. It is encouraging that the draft also sets strict conditions for any new environmental label, including the requirement for prior approval by Member States”.
He added: “The proposal identifies the use of carbon offsets to justify green claims as problematic and misleading to consumers. We could not agree more. However, it is regrettable that it does not go so far as to ban such claims, which is, in our view, the only effective way to really protect consumers from this kind of blatant greenwashing”.
See the draft project: https://aeur.eu/f/50n
See its annex: https://aeur.eu/f/50m (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)