Verbatim report of proceedings

Thursday, 11 May 2023 - Strasbourg

12.1. Empowering consumers for the green transition (A9-0099/2023 - Biljana Borzan)

Oral explanations of vote

  Mick Wallace (The Left). – Madam President, the Commission proposals for the Green Claims Directive and the Carbon Removal Certification Framework Regulation were both very disappointing. The Green Claims Directive had a chance to ban climate neutrality claims and failed to do so. The carbon removal certification framework proposal has absolutely nothing to say in terms of how the certificates that would be generated can or should be used. These certs should not be permitted to be used for carbon offsetting.

So the outcome of the IMCO Committee vote in terms of banning climate neutrality claims based on offsets gives us some hope that Parliament might be able to do likewise: amend both the Green Claims Directive and the Carbon Removal certification framework.

  Ангел Джамбазки (ECR). – Г-жо Председател, гласувах в подкрепа на този доклад по една много проста причина. Да, разбира се, потребителите търсят и се влияят от рекламите за това кои екологични резултати на стоките и услугите, които купуват са по-високи и кои са по-ниски. И разбира се, трябва да има някакво ниво на доказване и трябва да има някакво ниво, в което потребителите да не бъдат заблуждавани от реклами, които им представят всяка една стока като много екологична, като много природосъобразна и като едва ли не много полезна.

Бяхме свидетели как от пандемията насам, с всичките измислици, които последваха преди, по време и след нея, всичко започна да се рекламира като зелено, като екологично, като екологосъобразно. Помните зелени сертификати и зелени пропуски, всичко стана зелено. Това води до объркване, това води до заблуда на потребителите и действително всички тези твърдения трябва да бъдат доказвани. В тази връзка това е един разумен доклад и се надявам той да има своя резултат.

  Luke Ming Flanagan (The Left). – Madam President, I voted in favor of this report, which is about empowering consumers for the green transition through better protection against unfair practices and better information. This, for me, is essential. We can’t transition and people can transition if they’re not given proper information.

The amending of these two directives leads to great opportunities. It can be a powerful tool to tackle greenwashing practices. They can also provide powerful tools for consumers by providing better information on the durability and repairability of their products. It can lead to providing information on the repairability of products through a repairability score or other relevant repair information, a ban on displaying a sustainability label which is not based on a certification scheme or not established by public authorities and, also, a ban on making an environmental claim about an entire product when it actually concerns only a certain aspect of that product. I had that myself where I was proudly supposedly buying compostable nappies for years at double the price that normal ones were, and after I finished using them I discovered it was actually the package that was recyclable – and I destroyed my compost bin! So this will help people like me who don’t read things properly!