“Zero carbon”, “climate neutral”, “100% compensated”: sales arguments promoting carbon neutrality have flourished in recent years on the packaging of various products such as coffee capsules, washing-up liquid or chocolate cookies.
From January 1, brands will have to be able to justify these claims to continue to communicate on the neutrality of their products. This is one of the applications of the Climate and Resilience Law of August 22, 2021, drafted according to certain proposals of the Citizen’s Climate Convention.
Deceptive business practice
In October 2021, the associations CLCV (Consumption, housing and living environment) and CCFD-Terre solidaire had already launched legal action (still in progress) against the Nespresso, TotalEnergies or Air France brands, for misleading commercial practice, at the following the use of the claim “carbon neutral”.
For Mathieu Jahnich, teacher at Sciences Po and marketing consultant (1), “this decree is a step in the right direction by asking for more transparency”. “The use of this formulation gives the impression to citizens that consumption without consequences for the environment is possible, adds the university. It’s not true. »
Until now, no rule regulated the affixing of this argument, so much so that, since 2015 and the Paris Agreement on the climate, the shelves of supermarkets have been overwhelmed with labels claiming this carbon neutrality. And for good reason, according to a study by the advertiser Havas conducted in June 2022, the carbon neutrality of a company is a message ” positive “ for 81% of consumers surveyed. However, among them, less than half know how to define this concept, and only 7% can describe it very precisely.
Stricter rules
“Carbon neutrality is a complex concept that needs to be better explained to consumersrecognizes Nathalie Pons, in charge of ecological transition files for Havas. There is no more room for simplistic speeches. »
The new regulations imposed by the decree on 1is January wants to be stricter by making this argument of climate neutrality traceable. It asks, among other things, for documents that can be consulted by everyone that trace the carbon footprint of the product over its entire life. For a coffee capsule, this calculation must, for example, take into account the carbon footprint of coffee production as well as that of the manufacture and transport of the finished product. The imprints of its use thanks to a coffee machine and its final recycling or destruction will also fall within the scope of the calculation.
Once this score has been defined, companies will have to provide evidence of offsetting emissions and details of the projects in which they are involved, such as planting forests or financing renewable energy projects. The “carbon neutral” claim may be used if the compensation is up to the footprint. In addition, producers must submit a plan to reduce the carbon footprint of the product over several years.
The end of “carbon neutral”?
These cumbersome procedures “will chill a certain number of actors», anticipates Mathieu Jahnich. Same thing with advertisers. “The constraints are such that they make any use of the ‘carbon neutral’ argument very difficult”, adds Nathalie Pons. And even if companies meet the conditions for using it, the pressure from associations campaigning for the end of this mention could slow them down in practice.
The companies concerned will have to review their copy. In 2021, the distributor Lidl communicated widely on a range of around sixty products bearing the mention “climate neutral”. This selling point has since disappeared from all the websites of the discount supermarket network. Asked by The crossthe German brand did not wish to respond to our request.
This balance of power could, in the long term, have an effect opposite to that expected, warns Nathalie Pons. “Companies must be left with a field so that they can promote their ecological transition efforts, believes the advertiser. If they can no longer do this, there will be fewer constraints on them putting ambitious projects in place. »
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The origin of our clothes now on the label
A decree of the anti-waste law for a circular economy (Agec law) will require distributors, importers and textile producers to indicate on the labels, or on the shelves, the countries where the main manufacturing operations are carried out from 1is January. The government thus hopes to increase the consumption of textiles made in France. Today, the share of French production in the national consumption of clothing is only 5%. The decree also provides for the obligation to detail on the labels the actual share of recycled materials in textile products or packaging, mentioning their precise percentage.