“GREENWASHING”:
Many companies that claim their products are carbon neutral have not given details of how they achieved carbon neutrality, an NTU professor has said.

• By Chen Chia-yi and Jake Chung / Journalist, with the editor

The use of a carbon reduction labeling scheme could be limited to two years to stop companies greenwashing their image, the Environment Ministry said on Monday.

Experts have warned that companies often buy carbon credits as a last resort to adhere to carbon offsetting rules and achieve “carbon neutrality”, or reducing carbon emissions or purchasing carbon credits or national certifications of renewable energy to “compensate” the deficit. carbon emitted during manufacturing.

Chao Chia-wei (趙家緯), an assistant professor at the International Diploma Program in Climate Change and Sustainable Development at National Taiwan University (NTU), said many products claiming to be carbon neutral do not disclose details about how they achieved carbon neutrality.

Photo: ANC

Such products could be attempts by public relations departments to whitewash their image, Chao said.

Efforts to combat greenwashing globally are generally aimed at protecting consumers, but there is little discussion among Taiwan’s consumer protection agencies, Chao said.

Companies must make transparent the carbon footprint history of their products, while the government should study which products and services should be obliged to publish these details, he said.

Deputy Director-General of the Climate Change Administration Huang Wei-ming (黃偉鳴) said Taiwan already has a voluntary carbon emissions reduction labeling system, which applies to a wide range of products ranging from drinks to toilet paper to crisps.

The system is more of an administrative guidance, Huang said.

With the adoption of the Climate Change Response Act (氣候變遷因應法) last year, the ministry is considering amendments to regulations on voluntary exposure of carbon footprint to provide a legislative basis for the systems , he said, adding that the details would be made public. next month at the earliest.

The proposed changes would require the carbon footprint to be calculated based on the entire production process, not based on the results of one part of the process, which would favor a lower reading; that the management of carbon emissions control bodies be strengthened; and that the validity of the carbon emissions reduction label would be reduced from five to two years if the label was acquired through the voluntary system, he said.

Carbon reduction labels should refer to companies’ efforts to make their carbon emissions public and are not a reward, he said, adding that the label does not mean that the carbon emissions linked to the product have been reduced.

As for forced management of carbon emissions, the ministry would implement regulations governing consumer products, but it would take time to negotiate with foreign companies on how they would affect imports, Huang said.