Requirements on Consumer Information about Product ... - ANEC

Consumer Information about PCF
In order to complete the picture it has to be stated that other possible impacts on the
environment (e.g. toxic impacts, noise, impacts on biodiversity) were not analysed in Quack
and Rüdenauer (2007).
Against this background, in the subsequent chapters, the following seven product groups will
be analysed in detail:
• Energy consuming products:
1. Cars,
2. Household appliances;
• Energy saving products:
3. Insulation material;
• Products with relevance concerning greenhouse gas emissions at production phase:
4. Electricity,
5. Food,
6. Paper,
7. Textiles.
6.2 Category 1 (Energy consuming products), Example 1: Cars
The overall relevance of PCF in the product group cars is high. Most important is the usage
phase with a contribution of between 80 and 90% to the overall impact of a car, depending
on the specific car. The PCF of different car models differ significantly, therefore PCF can
support decision making. It has to be added that – although there are also differences in the
production phase – the differences in the usage phase are by far larger. Therefore, concerning
the communication of car features connected to the carbon footprint, it may be useful
enough to concentrate on the usage phase in the first step. But as there is also a difference
in the carbon footprint of different cars in the production phase depending e.g. on their size
(e.g. small size car versus a SUV), the whole life cycle may be included in later steps.
As cars have a relatively long life time, consumers only rarely have to decide about the
purchase of a car. With one single decision the environmental impacts connected with car
usage are decided upon for a long period of time. Therefore, consumers are willing to take
some time and effort before they decide on the purchase.
There exist a number of approaches to include CO2e emissions in the communication on
cars:
• The labelling Directive 1999/94/EC relating to the availability of consumer information
on fuel economy and CO 2 emissions in respect of the marketing of new passenger cars
(OJ L 12, 18.1.2000) requires the display of a label on fuel consumption and CO 2
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