Climate label

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A climate label or CO 2 label (or seal of approval ) is an eco-label , the indications of the product caused by a carbon dioxide - emissions are. It should help consumers to get an idea as quickly as possible of which products pollute the climate and how much. The introduction of such labels is being examined in various countries and there are some pilot projects.

Climate label initiatives

Great Britain

Carbon Trust climate label for fruit juice

The world's first CO 2 label, which indicates the so-called carbon footprint of a product ( Product Carbon Footprint , PCF), was developed in 2006 in Great Britain by the Carbon Trust . The Carbon Trust label also requires that the CO 2 emissions of the awarded products be further reduced in order to keep the label. An independent body is reviewing the process with the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs ( Defra ) and the British Standards Institute (BSI). At the end of 2008, a standard for calculating such product-related carbon footprints was introduced, the PAS2050.

Examples of products that have been labeled are Walkers chips , innocent drinks smoothies and Boots plc shampoos. The British bank HBOS , which was dissolved in 2009, had its online bank accounts labeled. The British supermarket Tesco had 20 of its own products such as detergents and orange juice labeled in a pilot phase from 2008, but in 2012 abandoned the plan to label all products. Other retailers did not have their products certified as expected; Tesco also complained that it took several months to have a single product certified.

Switzerland

The by the foundation myclimate founded club climatop from Switzerland distinguishes products with the same carbon emission label. However, the product-specific footprint is not given here, but the label is given to those products and services that have a significantly better CO 2 balance than those of a relevant comparison group. For this purpose, an ecological balance is drawn up by an independent body and checked by another body as part of a review. In addition to the climate-friendly requirements of the product, the product must also meet other ecological and social standards. The validity is two years. Products that have been given the climatop label include hand dryers, organic sugar from Paraguay ( Max Havelaar Foundation ), balcony soil without peat, household paper made from waste paper, detergents, diapers, reusable bags or evaporated salt.

Another label with the name Swiss Climate CO2 was awarded the highest number of points in a new study by the “Practical Environmental Protection Switzerland” (PUSch) team in February 2014 as the only climate label. The label is awarded to companies that are exemplary in promoting climate protection.

Germany

In Germany , the PCF pilot project was started in February 2008 under the sponsorship of WWF , the Öko-Institut , the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the THEMA1 think tank. A CO 2 footprint of 15 products and services was created. At the end of the project, however, it was found that the introduction of a corresponding label did not make sense, since there are no objective comparison options for the end customer without generally applicable standards.

A study commissioned by the consumer advice centers and published in 2012 tries to record the status of climate labels on food in Germany. She comes to the conclusion that there are only a few climate labels in Germany. Unlike in other countries, they do not give absolute greenhouse gas emissions. Only one of the identified labels is not awarded by the product manufacturer or retailer themselves, but by an independent certification organization, namely the Stop Climate Change environmental label. According to the study, only this label and one of Frosta’s own label publish sufficient background information.

France

The French supermarket chains Casino and E.Leclerc have started two different projects. While Casino indicates the CO 2 content of its own products , which is based on a product-specific ecological balance , similar to the British Carbon Trust label, E.Leclerc labels all products with a generic value for the respective product category. With the latter method, therefore, individual products of the same product category cannot be compared, but consumers can consciously decide against entire product groups that are climate-damaging.

United States of America

The Carbon Fund calculates the carbon footprint of a product, but the product is not recorded with this value. Instead, the producer undertakes to compensate the corresponding amount of CO 2 and receives a label with the label “carbon free” ( climate neutral ).

Another label, which has now been discontinued, the Climate Conscious Label from the non-profit organization The Climate Conservancy , provided for a rating of the products and a corresponding award (bronze, silver, gold).

Plans in California to introduce a voluntary climate label law in the state were abandoned in 2009.

Canada

The non-profit organization CarbonCounted has developed a web application that allows companies to calculate their product-specific carbon footprints online.

literature

  • Tiantian Liu, Qunwei Wang and Bin Su: A review of carbon labeling: Standards, implementation, and impact . In: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews . tape 53 , January 2016, p. 68-79 , doi : 10.1016 / j.rser.2015.08.050 .
  • Mark A. Cohen and Michael Vandenbergh: The Potential Role of Carbon Labeling in a Green Economy . In: Energy Economics . tape 34 , no. 1 , April 2012, doi : 10.2139 / ssrn.2041535 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tim Höfinghoff: The human being as a CO 2 emitter. In: FAZ.net. June 11, 2007, accessed October 5, 2016 .
  2. ↑ a b Following the footprints. In: The Economist Technology Quarterly: Q2 2011. June 2, 2011, accessed October 5, 2016 .
  3. ↑ a b Rikki Stancich: Which carbon label is best? ClimateChangeCorp, April 24, 2009; archived from the original on May 3, 2009 ; Retrieved October 5, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Product Carbon Footprint Summary. (PDF) Tesco, August 2012, accessed October 5, 2016 .
  5. ^ Adam Vaughan: Tesco drops carbon-label pledge. In: theguardian.com. January 30, 2012, accessed October 11, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Climatop label. In: myclimate.org. Retrieved October 5, 2016 .
  7. ↑ L. Frommberg: New app shows which labels can be relied on. In: 20 minutes. March 7, 2014, accessed October 5, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Environmental and social labels in the test: Not everywhere that it says organic ... In: NZZ Online. March 17, 2014, accessed October 5, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Swiss Climate CO2. In: labelinfo.ch. Retrieved October 5, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Six companies start product carbon footprint pilot project in Germany wwf.de Presse on April 16, 2008
  11. ↑ Press release on the results symposium on January 26, 2009 (PCF pilot project) (PDF; 117 kB)
  12. ↑ Ulrike Eberle, corsus-corporate sustainability: Claiming climate-relevant aspects of food . Hamburg February 6, 2012 ( PDF ).
  13. ^ Stacey R. O'Neill: Consuming for the Environment: A Proposal for Carbon Labels in the United States . In: California Western International Law Journal . tape 39 , no. 2 , 2008 ( cwsl.edu ).
  14. ↑ Bill Sheehan: Whatever Happened to Carbon Labeling? (No longer available online.) Upstream Policy Institute, April 23, 2014, archived from the original on October 11, 2016 ; accessed on October 1, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / upstreampolicy.org