The Ministry of Environment on Thursday released a set of guidelines for corporations to declare carbon neutrality in a bid to discourage “greenwashing,” but no penalties were included for noncompliance.
The guidelines encourage corporations to use its definition in declaring carbon neutrality for their products, services or organizations “to avoid circumstances under which they could make false declarations or mislead the public without revealing adequate information,” the ministry said.
“We have seen products, or even events such as marathons, claiming to have achieved carbon neutrality, but if the corporations have a distorted definition of the term, or consumers have little understanding of it, then that declaration becomes pointless,” Deputy Minister of Environment Shih Wen-chen (施文真) said.
Photo: Chen Chia-yi, Taipei Times
The new guidelines aim to avoid “greenwashing,” which the World Economic Forum (WEF) says takes the form of “selective disclosure” or “symbolic actions,” a ministry official told a news conference in Taipei.
The WEF defines “selective disclosure” as advertising positive environmental aspects of a product while hiding the negative factors, while “symbolic actions” refer to a focus on attention-grabbing activities, such as purchasing carbon credits, while failing to take substantial action to cut emissions.
The ministry said that its guidelines, which were compiled based on international standards such as the ISO14068-1 and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, have three main stages that need to be followed for a product or service to be considered carbon neutral.
First, companies must perform a complete calculation of their carbon emissions, or the products and services for which they want to declare carbon neutrality, the ministry said.
Corporations should then publicly state its science-based decarbonization pathway and how much carbon they reduced, with verification from an independent certification agency, it said.
In the third stage, which can only be undertaken after the first two are completed, accredited carbon credits would be used to offset emissions, it said.
The ministry would not take any initiatives to examine products or services that corporations claim to be carbon neutral, nor would it provide certification, Shih said.
“For now, compliance with the guidelines is voluntary, as our aim is mainly education and advocacy,” she said. “Public discussion would be needed if the guidelines are to be made compulsory.”
As such, no penalties would be imposed for failure to follow the guidelines, but consumers can report “false or misleading advertising” to the Fair Trade Commission, which would assess the case based on the ministry’s guidelines, she said.
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