Climate neutrality standard could add to greenwashing toolkit despite EU ban on misleading claims, new report shows
Press release | Companies that make no changes to their usual practices but claim their products or operations are climate neutral by buying carbon offsetting credits are greenwashing – plain and simple. The European Union recently took the same stance with new rules on green claims and empowering consumers. A report from environmental NGO ECOS [1] reveals that a new international standard rubberstamps practices that are in contradiction to these laws and are not aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement [2].
Greenwashing 101: Don’t reduce emissions – just offset them!
Every company generates emissions, but buying carbon credits does not magically make them vanish.
The accounting trick of carbon offsetting has been around for a while, so by now, plenty of research has discredited it [3]. Unfortunately, neither that nor the vocal opposition of environmental NGOs [4] prevented a new international standard from being approved, allowing companies to label themselves or their products ‘carbon neutral’ or ‘climate neutral’ without having to reduce emissions. Businesses can simply rely on offsets, which can mask wildly different levels of emissions reduction.
With the European Union recently outlawing climate-neutral product claims based on offsetting [5], the global policy agenda is moving in the direction of actual climate action. Organisations endorsing standards that do not meet this level of ambition should now make a U-turn to align with such better practices.
For example, ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, should reconsider the (lack of) environmental ambition in its carbon neutrality standard (ISO 14068-1:2023), which sells a method that will soon be outlawed in the EU. Criticism of this standard is growing, with the German Environment Agency (UBA) also underscoring the need for companies to go beyond it if they want to make climate claims that are credible [6].
Flawed standards that do not align with the Paris Agreement should not be on the market
The path to carbon neutrality must begin with emissions reduction. Using ISO’s carbon neutrality standard, high-emitting companies could already claim today to be carbon neutral – as long as they can afford to pay for offsets.
ISO is one of the best-known standardisation bodies; its standards are widely used worldwide and are very influential. Adopting a flawed standard on a key issue sets the bar much too low for climate action at a time when action has never been more needed.
It feeds unscientific narratives, with this bad practice approach already rippling out to other standards development organisations like the SBTi, Science Based Targets initiative [7].
ISO should align with the science, international best practices, and its own good advice, laid out in its more ambitious Net Zero Guidelines (IWA 42:2022) [8] and London Declaration [9]. A clear stand against climate neutrality claims based on carbon offsetting is needed from all standardisation organisations.
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Mathilde Crêpy, Head of Environmental Transparency at ECOS – Environmental Coalition on Standards, said: The amazing emissions vanishing act strikes again. This new carbon neutrality standard legitimises climate claims based on offsetting, adding to the greenwashing toolkit and contradicting incoming EU law. Companies must not be permitted to claim carbon neutrality for themselves or their products without reducing their emissions to negligible levels. The bar for climate action has already been set higher; standards like this should not be on the market.
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
[1] ‘ISO Net Zero Guidelines vs. ISO carbon neutrality standard: A contradictory approach to net zero’, ECOS report, December 2023: https://ecostandard.org/publications/climate-neutrality-report/
[2] The ISO carbon neutrality standard (ISO 14068-1:2023) endorses misleading carbon offsetting claims above real emissions reduction. Companies using the standard do not have to reduce their emissions to claim they or their products are climate or carbon neutral. This approach lags behind international agreements and legislation, which is far more ambitious.
[3] ‘Revealed: top carbon offset projects may not cut planet-heating emissions’, The Guardian, September 2023: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/19/do-carbon-credit-reduce-emissions-greenhouse-gases
[4] ‘Climate neutrality: only as strong as the weakest definition’, Elisa Martelucci in EURACTIV, June 2023: https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/opinion/climate-neutrality-only-as-strong-as-the-weakest-definition/
[5] The EU’s Green Claims Directive and Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive work together to ban misleading climate claims based on carbon offsetting in the EU.
[6] ‘Setting a Standard for GHG-Neutrality: How to improve the new ISO on carbon neutral organizations and products’, February 2024: https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/publikationen/setting-a-standard-for-ghg-neutrality
[7] The SBTi Board of Trustees issued a statement in April 2024 to widely recognise the contribution of carbon offsets in companies’ climate action. This violates the organisation’s own governance structure and ignores the many peer-reviewed studies demonstrating the failure of carbon offsets: https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2024/04/10/science-based-targets-initiative-sbti-board-of-trustees-decision-on-offsetting-undermines-science-and-endangers-the-climate/
[8] ISO Net Zero Guidelines (IWA 42:2022) give much more ambitious guidelines for companies on the path to climate neutrality: https://www.iso.org/netzero
[9] ISO London Declaration (climate commitment), 2021: https://www.iso.org/ClimateAction/LondonDeclaration.html
[10] ‘Greenwashing, certified? How to ensure new laws and standards do not rubberstamp dubious climate neutrality claims’, ECOS report, March 2023: https://ecostandard.org/publications/report-greenwashing-certified-how-to-ensure-new-laws-and-standards-do-not-rubberstamp-dubious-climate-neutrality-claims/
Contact:
If you have questions, please contact me:
Alison Grace
Press & Communications Manager at ECOS
alison.grace@ecostandard.org
+32 493 19 22 59
ECOS – Environmental Coalition on Standards is an international NGO with a network of members and experts advocating for environmentally friendly technical standards, policies, and laws.
