The European Parliament has today (Tuesday, March 12) adopted its position on a proposed directive aiming to tackle greenwashing by companies.
The Green Claims Directive would oblige companies to submit evidence about their environmental marketing claims before advertising products as “biodegradable”, “less polluting”, “water saving” or having “bio-based content”.
It would see the EU establish a verification and pre-approval system for environmental marketing claims to protect citizens from “misleading ads”.
EU member states would be required to assign verifiers to pre-approve the use of such claims, in order to “protect buyers from unfounded and ambiguous advertising”.
This proposed directive would build on the Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition which was passed by MEPs in January.
Directive
The EU Parliament wants claims and supporting evidence to be assessed within 30 days, but simpler claims and products could secure verification quicker than that.
Micro enterprises would not be covered by the new rules, and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) would have an extra year to be in compliance compared to larger businesses.
Companies that break the rules may face penalties, including fines of at least 4% of their annual turnover or being temporarily excluded from public procurement tenders.
MEPs said that green claims based solely on carbon offsetting schemes will remain banned.
However, companies could mention offsetting and certified carbon removal schemes in their marketing if they have already reduced their emissions as much as possible and use these schemes for residual emissions only.
It was decided that green claims about products containing hazardous substances should remain possible for now, but MEPs added that the EU Commission should assess whether they should be banned entirely.
The first reading text was agreed by MEPs during a plenary (full) sitting of the parliament today with 467 votes in favour, 65 against and 74 abstentions.
The proposed directive will now have to be followed up by the new parliament after the European elections due to place in June.
Greenwashing
EU Parliament Internal Market Committee rapporteur Andrus Ansip said that studies show that over 50% of environmental claims are vague, misleading or unfounded.
“We cannot speak about happy consumers if every other green claim is false. We cannot talk about a level playing field for our entrepreneurs while some traders are cheating.
“I believe the Green Claims Directive adopted today is balanced – it will bring clarity to our consumers and is less burdensome for traders than the claim-by-claim verification,” he said.
EU Parliament Environment Committee rapporteur Cyrus Engerer added: “It is time to put an end to greenwashing.
“Our position ends the proliferation of misleading green claims that have deceived consumers for far too long.
“We will ensure businesses have the right tools to embrace genuine sustainability practices.”
Parliament
Ireland South MEP Mick Wallace said that the outcome of the vote on the Green Claims Directive is “a very positive one”.
“People are sick of misleading green claims by companies. People are doing their best to make their own contribution to the green transition in their daily lives and companies are lying to them.
“The Green Claims Directive text we passed at plenary today builds on the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive, which essentially bans climate neutrality claims for products based on offsets.
The text adds a really quite significant restriction on claims based on offsetting at the level of a trader, not just at the product level,” he said.
“The next logical step would be to challenge ‘climate neutrality’ and ‘net zero’ a climate concepts and as the basis for EU climate policy and to work to establish a separate EU carbon removal target,” Wallace added.
Meanwhile, Jan Plagge, president of IFOAM Organics Europe, which advocates for organic farming in Europe, also welcomed today’s plenary vote.
“IFOAM Organics Europe fully supports the fight against greenwashing and welcomes the parliament’s view that the respect of planetary boundaries should also be considered when assessing environmental claims.
“It is crucial that the European Parliament has recognised that, for some product groups, the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method is not suitable for providing a holistic environmental assessment, and that other methodologies can be used.
“While the PEF works well for manufactured products, it is ill-suited to assess the environmental impact of agri-food products.
“For this reason, we welcome the concept of a “consultation forum” introduced by the European Parliament as it would enable relevant stakeholders to provide opinions on whether certain rules and methods are suitable for substantiating environmental claims in specific sectors,” he said.