It will be prohibited from 2023 to tout a product as "carbon neutral" in advertising without explaining its carbon footprint and any compensation measures, according to a decree published Thursday and the target of criticism.

While Emmanuel Macron, whose record in the fight against global warming is much criticized, seeks to "green" his offer in the between-two rounds to attract voters concerned about ecology, the government published Thursday in the Official Journal a decree implementing article 12 of the "climate and resilience" law on "carbon offsetting and claims of carbon neutrality in advertising".

It provides for the prohibition from January 1, 2023 of such statements, in all forms of advertising (print and audiovisual press, display, Web, etc.), if a greenhouse gas emissions report is not produced of the product or service concerned covering its entire life cycle", i.e. from upstream of its production to its eventual disposal or recycling.

“Risk of greenwashing”

This assessment must be accompanied by “the approach by which these greenhouse gas emissions are primarily avoided, then reduced and finally compensated”.

It is published on the advertiser's website, to which a link or QR code must be present on the advertisement or the packaging bearing the mention of carbon neutrality.

The decree must make it possible "to ensure transparency vis-à-vis the public and to prevent any risk of" greenwashing "", explained the government during its public consultation in January.

But NGOs believe for their part that the text does not go far enough, like the consumer defense association CLCV, which denounces its “lack of ambition”.

“Putting a QR code to refer to the site is not enough, you have to explain the (compensation) measures on the same medium and complete the statement by explaining that any product generates greenhouse gases.

Otherwise, it can be misinterpreted by the public who may think that a product has no impact on the climate, ”said Lisa Faulet, scientific and food manager of the CLCV.

"Misleading Business Practices"

The purpose of the climate and resilience law was to translate part of the proposals of the Citizen's Convention for the Climate (CCC), which wanted to "ban on all advertising media products with a strong impact on the environment".

This proposal had aroused an outcry in the profession and the measures finally adopted in terms of advertising were considered very insufficient by the CCC itself, during a vote on the translation of its proposals by the government, with a note 2.6 out of 10, the third worst of all.

And even before the entry into force of the law, NGOs have already brought the issue of highlighting carbon neutrality in advertising to court.

At the beginning of March, Greenpeace France, Friends of the Earth France and Notre Affaire à Tous, had thus taken TotalEnergies to court for "misleading commercial practices", questioning its stated ambition of carbon neutrality by 2050 and the presentation of gas as the "cleanest" fossil fuel.

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