IPCC: Climate Change, Synthesis Report
On March 20, 2023, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released the final part of its Sixth Assessment Report. The report summarizes the state of knowledge of climate change, its widespread impacts and risks, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. It integrates the main findings of the AR6 based on contributions from the three Working Groups, and the three Special Reports.
EU: Proposal for a Directive on Green Claims
Published on March 22, 2023, this proposal aims to stop companies from making misleading claims about environmental merits of their products and/or services.
The key objectives of the proposal on environmental claims are thus to:
- Increase the level of environmental protection and contribute to accelerating the green transition towards a circular, clean and climate neutral economy in the EU;
- Protect consumers and companies from greenwashing and enable consumers to contribute to accelerating the green transition by making informed purchasing decisions based on credible environmental claims and labels;
- Improve the legal certainty as regards environmental claims and the level playing fields on the internal market, boost the competitiveness of economic operators that make efforts to increase the environmental sustainability of their products and activities, and create cost saving opportunities for such operators that are trading across borders.
EU: Proposal for a Regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste
Last November, the European Commission published the proposal for a regulation on packaging and packaging waste (PPWR). Packaging used in transport will be affected in terms of re-use obligations. Some forms of packaging will be prohibited under Annex V. Importers will have to ensure that packaging from third countries entering the Union market complies with the PPWR. The feedback period ends on April 24, 2023.