Activities of Cyrus ENGERER related to 2023/0085(COD)
Reports (1)
REPORT on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (Green Claims Directive)
Amendments (14)
Amendment 95 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 21
Recital 21
(21) Climate-related claims have been shown to be particularly prone to being unclear and ambiguous and to mislead consumers. This relates notably to environmental claims that products or entities are “climate neutral”, “carbon neutral”, “100% CO2 compensated”, or will be “net-zero” by a given year, or similar. Such statements are often based on “offsetting” of greenhouse gas emissions through “carbon credits” generated outside the company’s value chain, for example from forestry or renewable energy projects. The methodologies underpinning offsets vary widely and are not always transparent, accurate, or consistent. This leads to significant risks of overestimations and double counting of avoided or reduced emissions, due to a lack of additionality, permanence, ambitious and dynamic crediting baselines that depart from business as usual, and accurate accounting. These factors result in offset credits of low environmental integrity and credibility that mislead consumers when they are relied upon in explicit environmental claims. Offsetting can also deter traders from emissions reductions in their own operations and value chains. In order to adequately contribute to global climate change mitigation targets, traders should prioritise effective reductions of emissions across their own operations and value chains instead of relying on offsets. Any resulting residual emissions will vary by sector-specific pathway in line with the global climate targets and will have to be addressed through removals enhancements. When offsets are used nonetheless, it is deemed appropriate to address climate-related claims, including claims on future environmental performance, based on offsets in a transparent manner. Therefore, the substantiation of climate- related claims should consider any greenhouse gas emissions offsets used by the traders separately from the trader’s or the product’s greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, this information should also specify the share of total emissions that are addressed through offsetting, whether these offsets relate to emission reductions or removals enhancement, and the methodology applied. The climate-related claims that include the use of offsets have to be substantiated by methodologies that ensure the integrity and correct accounting of these offsets and thus reflect coherently and transparently the resulting impact on the climatenot be based on greenhouse gas emissions offsets.
Amendment 114 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 31
Recital 31
(31) In order to meet both the needs of traders regarding dynamic marketing strategies and the needs of consumers regarding more detailed, and more accurate, environmental information, the Commission may adopt delegated acts to supplement the provisions on substantiation of explicit environmental claims by further specifying the criteria for such substantiation with regard to certain claims (e.g. climate-related claims, including claims about offsets, “climate neutrality” or similar, recyclability and recycled content). The Commission should be empowered to further establish rules for measuring and calculating the environmental impacts, environmental aspects and environmental performance, by determining which activities, processes, materials, emissions or use of a product or trader contribute significantly or cannot contribute to the relevant environmental impacts and environmental aspects; by determining for which environmental aspects and environmental impacts primary information should be used; and by determining the criteria to assess the accuracy of primary and secondary information. While in most cases the Commission would consider the need for adopting these rules only after having the results of the monitoring of the evolution of environmental claims on the Union market, for some types of claims it may be necessary for the Commission to adopt supplementary rules before the results of this monitoring are available. For example, in case of climate-related claims it may be necessary to adopt such supplementary acts in order to operationalise the provisions on substantiation of claims based on offsets.
Amendment 220 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point p
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point p
Amendment 224 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 2 a (new)
Article 1 – paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. By way of derogation from the second paragraph of this Article, this Directive applies if the legislation listed in points (a) to (o) does not provide an equivalent level of consumer protection as this Directive with respect to the reliability, comparability and verifiability of claims, the level of disclosure of information, the requirements on third party verification prior to the claim being put on the market and enforcement. Within one year after entry into force of this Directive, the Commission shall adopt a delegated act in accordance with Article 18 to specify which legislation is fully excluded from the scope of this Directive and for which legislation some of the Articles of this Directive continue to apply.
Amendment 340 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point h
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point h
(h) separate any greenhouse gas emissions offsets used from greenhouse gas emissions as additional environmental information, specify whether those offsets relate to emission reductions or removals, and describe how the offsets relied upon are of high integrity and accounted for correctly to reflect the claimed impact on climateprovide information demonstrating that no greenhouse gas emissions offsets are used for the claim;
Amendment 462 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 5 – paragraph 5 a (new)
Article 5 – paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Explicit environmental claims on a product or the trader shall not include greenhouse gas emissions offsets.
Amendment 481 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 5 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 2 – point c
Article 5 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 2 – point c
(c) the underlying studies or calculations used to assess, measure and monitor the environmental impacts, environmental aspects or environmental performance covered by the claim, without omitting the results of such studies or calculations and, explanations of their scope, assumptions and limitations, unless the information is a trade secret in line with Article 2 paragraph 1 of Directive (EU) 2016/943112 ; _________________ 112 Directive (EU) 2016/943 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure (OJ L 157, 15.6.2016, p. 1).
Amendment 489 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 5 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 2 – point f
Article 5 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 2 – point f
Amendment 692 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 11 – paragraph 3 a (new)
Article 11 – paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Accredited verifiers established in one Member State in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 may perform verification activities in any other Member State under the same conditions as accredited verifiers established in that Member State.
Amendment 708 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 12 – paragraph 1 a (new)
Article 12 – paragraph 1 a (new)
Member States shall designate single points of contact for microenterprises and SMEs from where they can request information on complying with the requirements on explicit environmental claims and on the available support referred to in the previous subparagraph.
Amendment 717 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 13 – paragraph 2
Article 13 – paragraph 2
2. For the purpose of the enforcement of Articles 5 and 6, Member States may designate the national authorities or courts responsible for the enforcement of Directive 2005/29/EC. In that case, Member States may derogate from Articles 14 to 17 of this Directive and apply the enforcement rules adopted in accordance with Articles 11 to 13 of Directive 2005/29/EC.
Amendment 780 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 18 – paragraph 2
Article 18 – paragraph 2
2. The power to adopt delegated acts as referred to in Article 1(3), Article 3(4) and Article 5(8) shall be conferred on the Commission for a period of five years from [OP please insert the date = the date of transposition of this Directive]. The Commission shall draw up a report in respect of the delegation of power not later than nine months before the end of the five-year period. The delegation of power shall be tacitly extended for periods of an identical duration, unless the European Parliament or the Council opposes such extension not later than three months before the end of each period.
Amendment 781 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 18 – paragraph 3
Article 18 – paragraph 3
3. The delegation of power referred to in Article 1(3), Article 3(4) and Article 5(8) may be revoked at any time by the European Parliament or by the Council. A decision to revoke shall put an end to the delegation of the power specified in that decision. It shall take effect the day following the publication of the decision in the Official Journal of the European Union or at a later date specified therein. It shall not affect the validity of any delegated acts already in force.
Amendment 783 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 18 – paragraph 5
Article 18 – paragraph 5
5. As soon as it adopts a delegated act, the Commission shall notify it simultaneously to the European Parliament and to the Council. A delegated act adopted pursuant to Article 1(3), Article 3(4) and Article 5(8) shall enter into force only if no objection has been expressed either by the European Parliament or by the Council within a period of [two months] of notification of that act to the European Parliament and the Council or if, before the expiry of that period, the European Parliament and the Council have both informed the Commission that they will not object. That period shall be extended by [two months] at the initiative of the European Parliament or of the Council.