There are several emerging EU laws on sustainability which will influence how Ireland markets its food and drink around the world, including the Green Claims Directive which targets misleading environmental claims.
This is according to the director of sustainability and quality assurance, Origin Green, at Bord Bia, Deirdre Ryan, who said the directive will “even the playing field in terms of other companies claiming climate neutrality”.
The directive proposed by the European Commission last year would set detailed rules on substantiating and communicating explicit environmental claims about products in business-to-consumer commercial practices.
The next step concerning the directive will be interinstitutional negotiations. In 2020, the commission found that 53% of examined environmental claims in the EU were vague, misleading or unfounded, and 40 % were unsubstantiated.
Climate-related claims based on carbon offsets or carbon credits are particularly prone to being unclear and ambiguous, and to mislead consumers. This relates to environmental claims that products are “carbon neutral”, the commission said.
Ryan recently spoke about emerging EU legislation on sustainability and how that’s influencing the need for science and evidence at the Teagasc Sustainability in Agriculture: The Science and Evidence conference.
Ireland exports €16.3 billion worth of produce to 180 countries every year, which is a 24% increase on pre-pandemic levels in terms of value. Ryan said this is “very much built on our sustainability and quality credentials”.
“When we export to 180 countries, it really matters what the world thinks of us and the creditability of what we say about our produce.”
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, EU Deforestation Regulation, and the Green Claims Directive are “absolutely front of mind for trade customers of Irish agriculture”, and will also impact a lot of big Irish companies, she said.
These pieces of legislation coincide with a “huge appetite” from Ireland’s customer base in food and drink for evidence and data points around sustainability, Ryan said.
Environmental claims
The Green Claims Directive and the complementary Empowering Consumers Directive, which focuses on the provision of reliable information on sustainability to enable consumers to make more informed choices, are part of the EU Green Deal.
The directive sets out that all claims around the environment by law must be based on scientific evidence, and must take a life-cycle perspective, e.g. the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the life-cycle of a product.
“This will present opportunities and challenges for us. It will even the playing field in terms of other companies claiming climate neutrality, which we see all the time from some other countries.
“We stand over the science. We have evidence-based communications based on the work done here in Teagasc and that’s going to be even more important in the years to come,” Ryan told the conference.
All environmental aspects have to be considered, she added. “If someone is talking about carbon intensity but biodiversity, they are not addressing sustainability in a holistic way, [and] will no longer be able to speak about those sustainability credentials.”
Emissions offsets will have to be reported in a “transparent way”. This will include separating offsets from emissions, specifying whether the offsets concern emission reductions or removals, and providing information on the quality of the offsets.
“We do see globally, particularly countries like New Zealand claiming climate neutrality on products a lot more regularly. [The directive] will even the playing field around some of that, particularly [for] those operating in Europe,” Ryan said.
Under the Green Claims Directive, businesses that are based outside the EU and make voluntary environmental claims directed at EU consumers will also have to respect the requirements set out in the proposed directive.
Sustainability reporting
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive will bring sustainability reporting for the first time “in line” with financial reporting, she said, adding that a lot of Irish companies are in line for reporting in 2026 with 2025 data.
Large companies and listed companies, except micro-enterprises, will be required to disclose information on the risks and opportunities arising from social and environmental issues, and the impact of their activities on people and the environment.
Around 50,000 companies are in scope of the directive in Europe, including Ireland’s dairy co-operatives and big meat companies. These will have to report on sustainability matters affecting the company and its supply chain, she said.
Ryan told the conference there will be a “huge need for data points on farm level”. Environmental data points that companies in scope will need to report on include biodiversity, and pollution to water, soil and air.
The EU Deforestation Regulation will also put a “huge burden” on companies, and affect the supply chain, she said. Companies have until December 30, 2025, to comply with the law that ensures products sold in the EU are not sourced from deforested land.
The deforestation regulation aims to fight climate change and biodiversity loss by preventing the deforestation related to EU consumption of palm oil, cattle, soy, coffee, cocoa, timber, rubber and products derived from these commodities.
Under the regulation, any operator or trader who places these commodities on the EU market, or exports from it, must be able to prove that the products do not originate from recently deforested land or have contributed to forest degradation.
The new regulation means that companies will only be allowed to sell products in the EU if the supplier provides a “due diligence” statement, confirming that the product does not come from deforested land or has led to forest degradation.