ECOS | Environmental Coalition on Standards

07 June 2022

No such thing as ‘carbon neutral’ – can laws and ISO standards tame the Wild West of green claims?

By Mélissa Zill

‘Carbon neutral’, ‘CO2 neutral’, ‘climate friendly’, ‘climate neutral’… As potentially misleading marketing messages spread like wildfire, policymakers and standardisers are trying to introduce rules that avoid massive greenwashing. In Europe, the Commission is launching new regulations; at the global level, ISO is developing a new standard on carbon neutrality. Will these initiatives be fit to solve the problem? Mélissa Zill, ECOS programme manager, explains why these plans might in fact end up missing the mark.

Amid a climate crisis, everyone wants to do their part. It is encouraging that consumers look for ways to reduce their environmental footprint. Producers are aware of this phenomenon and strive to create messages that cater to climate-conscious consumers. As a result, supermarket shelves are teeming with the broadest array of climate claims.

But, can we believe these claims? Recent investigations show that we should not. Of the net-zero pledges by 25 companies evaluated in the 2021 Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor report, only one was deemed as having ‘reasonable integrity’. The study found nearly all claims relied on loopholes or tricks to exaggerate the ambition of their claims and climate targets. Similarly, a 2021 report from ECOS suggests that half of the ‘green claims’ we find on everyday plastic products could be misleading.

Environmental organisations are not the only ones sounding the alarms about the dangers of greenwashing around meaningless climate claims. Last year, a screening of websites done by the European Commission and consumer organisations showed that ‘half of the green claims lack evidence’. 

 

The Commission wants to regulate claims – but is unlikely to succeed

Faced with this situation, the European Commission wants to crack down on net-zero and carbon-neutrality labels. Will it succeed? Unfortunately, so far, prospects are disheartening for climate-conscious consumers.

The European Commission is launching two legislative initiatives this year: the Empowering Consumers Initiative (published in March), and the Green Claims Regulation (initially planned for July, now likely to be postponed to the autumn). The strategy seems to be the following: the EU would like to ban the most problematic claims through the former, and then make sure that the claims still allowed are sufficiently substantiated through the latter.

So far, the already published Empowering Consumers Initiative has left us wishing for more. While it does try to tame misleading messages, it keeps the door open for claims on carbon neutrality as long as they are supported by ’clear, objective and verifiable commitments and targets given by the trader’.

In our view (and that of the French energy agency ADEME), the main problem with carbon neutrality claims is not that they are not sufficiently substantiated – the problem is that claims on climate neutrality of products should not be allowed on the market at all. When a product is labelled ‘carbon neutral’, consumers are led to believe that it has no impact on the climate. While this might seem harmless for food items such as bananas or coffee, it is way more problematic when used in advertisements for fossil fuels or plane tickets. Such marketing messages actively encourage individuals to continue leading carbon-intensive lifestyles.

Will the Commission listen to experts? We hope that the proposal for a Green Claims Regulation does not follow in the steps of the Empowering Consumers Initiative, and instead outlaws any claims on ‘climate neutrality’. We must not give polluters a ‘free for all’ pass, as this would dramatically erode the trust of environment-conscious consumers in all climate-related claims.

 

An ISO standard coming up next year could certify claims at the global scale

EU considerations aside, the claims people will see in supermarkets a few years from now will greatly depend on the final contents of a standard currently under development by the international standardiser ISO. It is the ISO 14068 on carbon neutrality, which, once published, companies will be able to use to justify, and certify, carbon neutrality claims in the future. It is expected for publication in 2023.

The standard aims to provide a harmonised approach to achieving carbon neutrality and communicating any associated claims. Companies following the guidelines set in this standard would be able to claim carbon neutrality.

However, the technical specifications in the standard are not fully decided yet. To avoid opening a huge loophole to greenwashing, we believe that some vital safeguards must be included:

  • The scope should be limited to organisations. Climate-related claims should not be allowed on specific products, services, events or buildings. This will ensure that companies make efforts to reduce their impact overall – not just for some of their operations, services or products.
  • The standard should only allow claims when emissions are reduced to an absolute minimum level and aligned with climate targets, instead of relying on offsets. Offsetting is not a long-term solution. It enables companies to continue with business as usual when the focus should first be on drastically – and urgently – cutting emissions.

 

Can a ‘climate neutrality’ claim be legitimate?

The short answer is ‘no’.

Can we produce something, wrap it in packaging and deliver it to shops with no impact on the planet?

Consumers should not be misled into thinking that any purchase they make is carbon neutral. Such claims, especially on products, are not only misleading… but also dangerous, as they allow companies to delay real climate action, offsetting the current emissions instead of focusing on actually reducing them.

It is not too late for EU policymakers and international standardisers to make sure that new legislation and technical guidelines do tame the Wild West of green claims – and by doing so live up to the European Green Deal and London Declaration commitments

ECOS is co-funded by the European Commission and EFTA Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EISMEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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