Companies selling in the European Union will no longer be able to claim that their products are carbon or climate neutral, the EU has provisionally agreed. This victory against greenwashing corresponds to longstanding demands from climate campaigners to eliminate the use of offsets and send a signal to the voluntary carbon market.
Misleading and unsubstantiated green claims are widespread and must be addressed. Tackling this ubiquitous problem through the GCD (as a complement to the “Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition” (ECGT) proposal) falls short due to the failure to ban one of the most pervasive and contentious green claims – neutrality claims.
In response to a complaint lodged by civil society, the Swiss advertising regulator has ordered FIFA, football’s governing body, to stop describing the 2022 World Cup as “carbon neutral” because the claim is “false and misleading”. This anti-greenwashing victory has worldwide implications for mega-sporting events, corporations and lawmakers.
he European Parliament has demonstrated a strong commitment to both consumer protection and the climate when it voted in favour of a ban on companies making “carbon neutral” claims. The Council of the European Union and the European Commission must support such a prohibition during the ongoing legislative process to review EU consumer protection rules.
Major corporations are making disingenuous ‘net zero’ and ‘carbon neutral’ claims based on dubious emissions offsetting practices rather than actual cuts. This cannot continue.
La présente plainte porte sur la publicité de « neutralité carbone », par la FIFA, de la Coupe du Monde de Football 2022 au Qatar. Nous jugeons que cette communication par la FIFA constitue une publicité envers le public, qu’elle est trompeuse et fausse, et qu’elle enfreint les règles et codes du Jury d’Ethique Publicitaire …
La présente plainte porte sur la publicité de « neutralité carbone », par la FIFA, de la Coupe du Monde de Football 2022 au Qatar. Nous jugeons que cette communication par la FIFA constitue une publicité envers le public, qu’elle est trompeuse et fausse, et qu’elle enfreint les règles et codes du Jury d’Ethique Publicitaire …
Executive summary The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is being advertised as a “carbon neutral” event. This means that its net impact on the climate is zero or negligible. However, our investigation of the available evidence casts serious doubts on this claim, which likely underestimates the tournament’s true emissions levels and climate impact. This …
Read more “Poor tackling: Yellow card for 2022 FIFA World Cup’s carbon neutrality claim – Updated”
The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar has advertised itself as a carbon-neutral tournament. However, a thorough Carbon Market Watch analysis reveals that this claim lacks credibility due to the apparent large-scale underestimation of the event’s emissions and the low quality of the carbon credits currently purchased to offset the climate impact.
The FIFA World Cup in Qatar advertises itself as the first carbon-neutral tournament of its kind. Our latest research casts serious doubt on this claim, suggesting that this goal will be achieved through creative accounting rather than actually reaching a carbon footprint of (net) zero.
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