EEB position on the Green Claims Directive

Policy recommendations for a robust Green Claims Directive to address greenwashing and support sustainable consumption and production

The proliferation of greenwashing is hampering the green transition: it hinders consumers’ ability to make informed sustainable choices and makes it harder for the companies that strive to reduce their environmental impacts to differentiate themselves from free riders. We need clear EU rules to clear the market of misleading claims, and we need companies to provide the evidence behind their assertions.

The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) strongly welcomes the Commission’s proposal for a Directive on substantiating green claims or Green Claims Directive (GCD). This legislation is highly necessary to crack down on greenwashing and support sustainable consumption and production. In this paper, the EEB highlights key provisions of the GCD proposal which should be preserved during the negotiations and provides recommendations on further improvements necessary to ensure a robust future-proof framework for voluntary environmental claims.