How will Europe remove millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to keep on track for its climate commitments – that’s a key question facing the next European Commission and Parliament. Kasia Wilk from Drax explains how the Green Claims Directive can help.
The European Parliament voted Thursday (11 May) in support of new rules aimed at improving product durability by combatting greenwashing and misleading claims on consumer labels, such as "CO2 neutral" or "carbon neutral".
New legislation presented by the European Commission on Wednesday (22 March) to clamp down on greenwashing allows businesses to continue making carbon-neutral claims provided they meet specific transparency requirements.
Food companies will be forced to justify claims such as carbon neutral under newly proposed plans from the European Commission as criticisms mount over the ‘rampant’ greenwashing found on supermarket shelves - but farmers warn plans must be fine-tuned for the specificities of the food sector.
The European Commission tabled new legislation on Wednesday (22 March) to tackle misleading environmental claims by introducing penalties against greenwashing and tighter rules for the approval of new ecolabels.
Carbon neutral claims are misleading and confuse consumers, according to a new report from consumer group BEUC who call for the terms to be banned from food and drink products in the EU.
Consumers are keen to pick sustainable food products even if they cost more, but are deterred by a lack of trust in the labels meant to mark food as green, according to a leading European Commission official.
