Requirements on Consumer Information about Product ... - ANEC

Consumer Information about PCF
In general, it is claimed that PCF is able to reach the following targets:
• Analyses of the greenhouse gas emissions that occur along the value chain of a good
or service.
• Identification of the hot spots of greenhouse gas emissions over the life cycle of a
product or service and of realisable reduction potentials.
• Identification of the possible courses of action in order to achieve reduction potentials
for different players along the value chain of a good or service: producers, customers,
procurers, consumers, politicians etc..
• Evaluation and comparison of different products of the same product group (e.g.
different models of cars).
Within the study on hand it will be discussed in the following whether the listed targets can be
reached by PCF and which problems occur.
Although climate change is very important to be addressed there is consensus that the
analyses and the assessment of greenhouse gas emissions have to be carried out taking
into account (all the) other environmental impacts of the specific product group under
consideration. This is only possible when broadening the perspective beyond the actual PCF.
The communication of PCF results to consumers is widely discussed (see e.g. ISO).
Possible targets may be here
‒ the assessment of the greenhouse gas emissions of private households,
‒ the identification of the most important courses of action for consumers,
‒ the support for purchase decisions and usage of products.
The study of Prakash et al (2008) already pointed out the following advantages and disadvantages
of the use of CO2e indicators as single product information 3 .
Advantages / Pro‘s
• CO2-indicators meet a high level of public awareness,
• are easily understandable,
• are in line with various new fiscal and legislative procedures in many countries,
• are more precisely representing the environmental impact,
• use a well-established aggregation method,
• and avoid confusion with traditional energy indicators.
3
Prakash et al (2008) focused on the comparison between CO2e indicators and primary energy indicators. For
more detailed see http://www.anec.org/attachments/ANEC-R&T-2008-ENV-005final.pdf
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