It’s crunch time for anti-greenwashing rules

 

One of the last files inherited from the Green Deal, the green claims directive, heads for trilogue negotiations on Tuesday, testing the extent of remaining support for eco-friendly rules in the EU.

While products deemed environmentally friendly have been flooding the market,  their credibility has been put into question, with a 2020 European Commission study finding that more than half of these products are misleading consumers.

In an attempt to prevent greenwashing practices, the EU executive proposed a ban on unsubstantiated eco-friendly claims in 2023. If the text reaches the finish line, labelling products as sustainable will no longer be possible without a verification carried out by external auditors.

But as momentum for environmental and sustainability-related regulation greatly cooled off in the passage from the first to the second von der Leyen mandate, with policy priorities veering towards a more pro-business competitiveness-centred agenda, it may prove hard for this law to survive attempts by co-legislators at the Parliament and the Council, to limit its scope. (...)