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Verbesserung des Verständnisses und der Nutzung von CO 2 ‐Fußabdruck‐Label auf Lebensmitteln durch Verbraucherinnen und Verbraucher: Vorschlag für ein Klima‐Label
Author(s) -
Lemken Dominic,
Zühlsdorf Anke,
Spiller Achim
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
eurochoices
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.487
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1746-692X
pISSN - 1478-0917
DOI - 10.1111/1746-692x.12321
Subject(s) - carbon footprint , business , government (linguistics) , greenhouse gas , marketing , trustworthiness , environmental economics , food labelling , climate change , public economics , economics , labelling , psychology , ecology , social psychology , philosophy , linguistics , biology , criminology
Summary Today, the food sector is largely excluded from climate protection policies. Nevertheless, the food sector is responsible for about 20 per cent of greenhouse gases. Food policies could substantially contribute to the EU’s ambitious climate goals. Currently, the debate on CO 2 ‐e labelling is gaining momentum. Consumers know very little about the climate footprint associated with food choices. A climate label would strengthen consumer knowledge, may eventually influence food choices, could trigger reformulation efforts, raises awareness, and contribute to better informed discussions about climate policy. Based on a review of the current state of research and industry developments on designing CO 2 footprint labels, this article provides recommendations on how to develop a clearly understood and trustworthy label. We propose a government approved, multi‐level, and categorical CO 2 ‐e label, with colour coding and numeric CO 2 equivalents; primarily based initially on median values. The design of the label should allow for an adoption of other environmental dimensions in the future. It should be scaled to weight (CO 2 ‐e per kg) and apply to food products and meals. In the proposed form, a CO 2 ‐e label is a low‐cost instrument. As more and more companies are already starting to label their products in different ways, consumer confusion is likely to rise if no uniform guidelines are established.