By Sophie Tendane
The European Parliament and the Council have recently announced a groundbreaking law known as the Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (ECGT). This law aims to empower consumers against corporate “greenwashing” and misleading environmental claims.
The ECGT law places restrictions on deceptive green claims and labels while encouraging actions that facilitate sustainable choices and provide better information to consumers.
One significant aspect that stood out for me is addressing barriers to making sustainable choices and ensuring transparency in environmental claims.
Environmental claims increasingly pertain to future performance, such as transitioning to carbon capture and more.
Namibia, having signed the Paris Agreement on climate action in April 2016, can find relevance in this legislation.
The Directive prohibits making generic environmental claims without recognizing excellent environmental performance that is relevant to the claim.
Examples of such claims are ‘environmentally friendly’, ‘eco-friendly’, ‘green’, ‘ecological’, ‘climate friendly’, ‘carbon friendly’, ‘energy efficient’, or similar statements that suggest or create the impression of excellent environmental performance.
It proposes that such generic environmental claims should be prohibited whenever no recognized excellent environmental performance has been demonstrated.
In a national context, it will ensure that any environmental assertions made in Namibia are grounded in actual positive environmental contributions, preventing misleading statements that may compromise the country’s sustainability efforts.
For example, the claim ‘climate-friendly packaging’ would be a generic claim, while claiming that 100% of the energy used to produce this packaging comes from renewable sources’ would be a specific claim, which would not fall under this prohibition.
The law proposed that a claim made in written form or orally combined with implicit claims such as colors or images could constitute a generic environmental claim altogether.
“GREENWASHING”
The Cambridge English Dictionary defines greenwashing as “behavior or activities that make people believe that a company is doing more to protect the environment than it really is to attract customers.
An infamous example of greenwashing is the case of Volkswagen’s “Clean Diesel” campaign. In the mid-2000s, Volkswagen marketed its diesel vehicles as environmentally friendly, claiming they had lower carbon dioxide emissions and better fuel efficiency.
Sometimes traders can create the impression that consumers contribute to a low-carbon economy by purchasing their products.
To maintain fairness and credibility, the law emphasizes comparing products based on environmental or social characteristics and ensuring transparency in sustainability labels.
Traders must be transparent about the environmental impact, avoiding misleading statements.
Examining this in the context of reimagining a sustainable future for Namibia, it becomes crucial for several reasons.
NAMIBIA’s NDC
Namibia has set its own mission targets known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which are reviewed every five years.
In its 2015 NDC, Namibia committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 89% by the year 2030 and updated this target to 92% in the 2021 NDC, which will be revised in 2025.
This means Namibia has to reduce emissions rapidly by investing in carbon sinks, transitioning to renewable energy sources, and promoting sustainable practices in agriculture.
Namibia can leverage this directive to promote transparency and credibility in its sustainability practices, contributing to the establishment of a robust circular economy.
Sophie W. Tendane is a Sustainable Development Goals advocate, the founder of the Green Climate Awareness Foundation, and a journalist. Find her on LinkedIn or greenclimatefoundation@gmail.com.