Introduction

Private carbon and climate change labelling schemes allow consumers to make choices based on carbon emissions over the whole or a part of a product's life cycle. Carbon labels raise consumer awareness and may increase pressure on producers and companies to reduce carbon emissions. Private climate change labelling schemes are proliferating rapidly. Labels reflecting ‘air miles’ and ‘food miles’ are now part of the marketing strategy of two UK supermarkets — Marks & Spencer and Tesco. Other private standardisation and labelling organisations, including the Soil Association and Bio Suisse, are examining or have already decided (respectively) to deny organic certification for products transported by airfreight — a carbon-intensive form of transport. This paper first discusses the policy implications of private climate change labelling schemes, then scrutinises their legality under the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT).

Policy perspective

Climate change standards and climate labelling: the policy dimension

Private labelling schemes are not generally based on agreed international standards. As a result, they may risk confusing consumers. The potential for consumer confusion is compounded by the fact that private labels often focus on one narrow aspect of a product's life cycle (such as transport), which may present an incorrect view of that product's overall implications for climate change, and could undermine confidence in more sophisticated carbon and climate change labelling schemes. Certain problems posed by private schemes are discussed below.