Carbon washing?
Climate-neutral hand washing – have you ever tried it? For a while, this was apparently possible, according to a major drugstore chain, which used a “climate-neutral” label to advertise its products. But how much truth was there behind this claim? Is it really feasible to compensate – sustainably and permanently – for all the emissions produced during the manufacturing, transportation and use of the soap? And does it make sense to advertise goods in this way? Once the EU’s new Green Claims Directive enters into force, this kind of generalised advertising of products as “climate-neutral” will no longer be permitted.
In fact, the most important step that our society can take towards climate neutrality is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible. This can be achieved by expanding renewable energies and making efficient use of energy and resources. We all have a responsibility here: policy-makers must define clear goals and, if necessary, regulate the markets or promote innovation. The private sector’s task is to develop new ideas and invest in sustainable products and business models. And civil society should be pioneering responsible lifestyles and consumption patterns.
Only then, as the next step, should we be talking about how to deal with emissions that cannot currently be avoided. We need to look carefully at voluntary climate action that is based around the purchase of carbon credits and aims to offset emissions via mitigation projects. The fact is that quality in this voluntary carbon market often leaves a lot to be desired, as we reveal in the following pages. We also profile some of the people who are working to improve quality in this context and thus aim to advance climate change mitigation effectively via a market for emission reductions – including the Oeko-Institut, incidentally. A better option than offsetting residual emissions is the principle of climate responsibility, which we also cover in this issue. Here, a responsible price is paid for remaining emissions.
As for climate-neutral hand washing: that’s a little less straightforward these days. Ruling against the drugstore chain last summer, Karlsruhe Regional Court held that expectations were being raised that the products concerned did not fulfil.
Yours,
Christof Timpe
CEO, Oeko-Institut