Roundtable on 'The implications of the Green Claims Directive for the EU's voluntary carbon market'

Speakers:
Giulia Carbone, Director, Nature for Climate, World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Philip Lowe, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for European Reform
Eve Tamme, Managing Director, Climate Principles
Patricia Zurita, Chief Strategy Officer, Conservation International
Chair: Elisabetta Cornago, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for European Reform

The EU aims to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. By then, residual carbon emissions should be compensated through carbon credits, or absorbed in carbon sinks. Voluntary action by businesses is important in this sense – and yet it should be transparent for consumers. This is the rationale behind the Green Claims Directive, which is now nearing trilogue negotiations. This directive will require businesses to substantiate the voluntary claims related to the environmental impacts of their goods or services prior to making them public, to avoid greenwashing and misleading consumers. Relatedly, the EU is implementing the Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming Certification (CRCF) Regulation, which will establish an EU-wide voluntary framework for certifying carbon removals, carbon farming and carbon storage in products across Europe. What are the Green Claims Directive's likely impacts on corporate decarbonisation efforts? What is the role of nature-based solutions in the path towards EU carbon neutrality and how could they be improved as part of the directive? How would the CRCF interact with the directive?