Requirements on Consumer Information about Product ... - ANEC

Consumer Information about PCF
Single number CO2 labels make no sense
A static PCF stand-alone label providing a total CO2 footprint on products does not make
sense and is not very relevant for consumer decision making. Although consumers are
increasingly aware of the relevance of climate impacts resulting from their purchasing
behaviour and usage of products, the display of a total CO2e footprint figure alone would not
be of much help to them. It has to be stressed that a figure of this kind suggests a precision
and conclusiveness which cannot be achieved using the current state of methodology. At the
current state with only few products being labelled this even bears the risk that the sheer
display of such a label makes consumers believe that the product might be better then
another without label.
Climate change might be addressed by other means then PCF
It is not always necessary to use PCF to address climate change issues. As CO2e emissions
are at the moment often highly correlated to the demand of electric and thermal energy and
fuel consumption (e.g. in cars) climate change issues can be more easily addressed by
energy efficiency parameters. The latter is also cheaper and more reliable as it addresses a
key parameter that can be directly measured and restricted e.g. by legislation. In other
cases, like food for example, PCF is a good base for the development of general
recommendation for consumers taking into account climate change issues (e.g. “eat regional
and seasonal food”, “eat less meat” etc.) but needs not be communicated as PCF.
Overall it can be concluded that in some cases there is no added value to the use of PCF
and in other cases PCF should only serve as base for general recommendations.
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