27 January, 2025
Honourable members of the European Parliament and national representatives,
Trust is easy to lose and hard to regain – and current practices for communicating environmental information are rapidly eroding public trust in green claims, as recently shown by a consumer survey conducted by the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC). The Green Claims Directive is Europe’s best chance to eliminate greenwashing.
By guiding businesses to have confidence in the claims they can make, this Directive could set the foundation necessary to repair a market failure that is costing rather than rewarding businesses for sustainable innovation.
We, the undersigned (civil society organisations and businesses across Europe), call on the Council and Parliament to support a robust Directive with a meaningful verification procedure and clear rules on environmental claims to protect consumers and sustainable businesses.
In particular, two key provisions are needed to achieve more sustainable consumption:
1. Ensure the efficient verification of all claims before they enter the market.
Today, half of environmental claims on the market are either misleading or misuse methods of substantiation. Market authorities cannot enforce current legislation sufficiently due to the sheer number of claims whilst traders face legal uncertainty and fragmentary enforcement. Smaller businesses that cannot afford the best lawyers and who cannot risk enforcement are the most disadvantaged. Including verification ex-ante by default would eliminate greenwashing from the start and support businesses in managing legal risks from greenwashing. The process should be swift, manageable, and affordable.
2. Prevent misleading environmental claims relying on ‘offsetting’ of environmental impacts, including at the traders’ level.
The EU’s Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive, national regulators, and Courts have all recognised that ‘offsetting’ is a highly flawed concept that does not align with scientific evidence. Instead, the Directive should enable companies to communicate about their contribution to environmental projects outside of their value chain, with no notion of compensation.
The Green Claims Directive is a major milestone of the New Consumer Agenda and the European Green Deal – and it is as urgent as ever to put it into action. We firmly believe that these provisions will ensure that consumers receive truthful information about the real environmental impacts of products and traders.
We urge you to support and enhance the sound provisions proposed by the European Commission and the co-legislators, as proposed in this letter.