Use of a carbon reduction labeling system might be limited to two years to prevent corporations from “greenwashing” their image, the Ministry of Environment said on Monday.
Experts have warned that the corporations often purchase carbon credits as a last resort to adhere to carbon offsetting rules and achieve “carbon neutrality,” or the reduction of carbon emissions or purchase of carbon credits or National Renewable Energy Certifications to “make up” for the carbon emitted during manufacturing.
Chao Chia-wei (趙家緯), an assistant professor in National Taiwan University’s (NTU) International Degree Program in Climate Change and Sustainable Development, said that many products claiming to be carbon neutral do not divulge details on how they achieved carbon neutrality.
Photo: CNA
Such products might be attempts by public relations departments to greenwash their image, Chao said.
Efforts to combat greenwashing globally usually seek to protect consumers, but there is minimal discussion among Taiwan’s consumer protection agencies, Chao said.
Firms must make the carbon footprint history of their products transparent, while the government should study which products and services should be mandated to publish those details, he said.
Climate Change Administration Deputy Director-General Huang Wei-ming (黃偉鳴) said Taiwan already has a voluntary carbon reduction labeling system, which applies to a wide range of products from drinks to toilet paper to chips.
The system is more of an administrative guidance, Huang said.
With the passage of the Climate Change Response Act (氣候變遷因應法) last year, the ministry is mulling amendments to regulations on voluntary carbon footprint exposition to provide a legislative basis for the systems, he said, adding that the details would be made public next month at the earliest.
The draft changes would require that the carbon footprint be calculated according to the total production process, not according to the results from a part of the process that would favor a lower reading; that the management of carbon emissions inspection organizations be bolstered; and that the validity of carbon reduction labeling would be dropped to two years from five if the label was acquired through the voluntary system, he said.
Carbon reduction labels should refer to corporations’ efforts to make public their carbon emissions and are not an award, he said, adding that the label does not mean carbon emissions linked to the product have been reduced.
As for enforced management of carbon emissions, the ministry would implement regulations governing consumer products, but it would need time to negotiate with foreign companies on how they would affect imports, Huang said.
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