The European Commission published its proposal for a Directive on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (Green Claims Directive) of 22 March 2023.
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What is the Green Claims Directive about?
This proposal shall amend the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive to tackle in part the “greenwashing”, untransparent sustainability labels. (i.e. The “greenwashing” refers to the misleading practice of making unclear or not well-substantiated environment claims. The environmental sustainability labels lack transparency and credibility during the advertising, purchasing stages and the use of the products). It implements a series of measures, such as:
- Firstly, it modifies the list of product characteristics about which a trader should not deceive a consumer (Art. 6(1) Directive 2005/29/EC) to integrate the “environment or social impact”, “durability”, and “reparability”.
- Then, it amends the list of misleading actions to refer to as the environmental claim-making related to future environmental performance without clear, objective and verifiable commitments and targets, and an independent monitoring system.
- Finally, it also extends the list of commercial unfair practices in all circumstances (Annex I Directive 2005/29/EC).
Scope of the proposal
Thus, the proposal sets minimum requirements on the substantiation and communication of voluntary environmental claims and environmental labelling in business-to-consumer (B2C) commercial practices, without any prejudice to other Union legislation setting out conditions on environmental claims as regards certain products or sectors. This proposal does not focus on digital information tools in which the proposal on Empowering consumers for the green transition addresses. However, it concerns environmental claims made in both the physical and digital environment, including e-commerce.
Requirements in the proposal
This Directive requires an assessment as the foundation of the substantiation of explicit environmental claims, fulfilling the selected minimum criteria. It aims to prevent claims from being misleading. Regarding the communication of environmental claims, all claims shall (i) only cover environmental impacts, aspects, or performance in compliance with the substantiation requirements, (ii) include information on how consumers may appropriately use the products to decrease environmental impacts, (iii) contain information on the substantiation. Furthermore, it provides the environmental label and labelling schemes, their ex-ante verification.
For more cool report about using the technologies to protect environment on AstraIA Gear: https://www.astraiagear.com/2023/03/17/un-technology-and-innovation-report-2023-updates-in-vietnam/
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