EU weighs options on ‘greener’ consumption and production

The European Commission has opened a public consultation on how to make products greener and lure shoppers towards low-carbon and more resource-efficient products.

The consultation, open until 23 September, will feed into action plans that the Commission intends to launch in early 2008 on the following topics:

• “Towards a sustainable industrial policy“.
• “Sustainable Consumption and Production“.

The EU executive said the action plans will “propose effective, concrete actions” aimed at “reducing the environmental impacts and achieving a more sustainable use of natural resources and energy.” The main actions under consideration include: 

• Enhancing product labelling “so as to facilitate a shift of demand towards the most sustainable products” as already carried out under the eco-design directive.
• Supporting “leaner and cleaner” production techniques, including resource and material efficiency targets and eco-management and audit schemes for large industrial installations.
• Supporting sustainable consumption by reinforcing measures to “internalise environmental cost into product prices” and stimulate markets for best performing products.

The Commission said it was also looking into “the opportunity and efficiency” of setting different value-added tax rates according to the environmental performance of products. It launched a separate public consultation on the issue earlier in July (EURACTIV 6/07/07).

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently supported the move, citing cars that emit less CO2, energy-efficient light-bulbs and insulation as likely candidates for a reduced EU-wide 5% VAT rate (EURACTIV 23/07/07).

The two leaders are to submit the proposal at an informal meeting of economic and finance ministers on 14-15 September in Porto. However, the unanimity requirement in the Council on those issues means the proposal is exposed to a veto from any of the Union’s 27 member states. Germany in particular has repeatedly blocked earlier attempts to lower VAT for restaurants and has yet to react to the Franco-British proposal.

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