Positions 04 Oct 2022

CER Position - Carbon labelling scheme towards sustainable mobility

In the last years the awareness of transport’s impact on the environment (energy consumption, GHG emissions and local pollution) has grown, but transport users currently lack a carbon footprint label that is based on a credible methodology. The Commission is currently working on this methodology under the CountEmissions EU initiative. Such methodology should be the basis for the development of a carbon labelling scheme that should enable transport users to choose the most sustainable options to achieve a shift to clean mobility and at the same time allow service providers to monitor and reduce their emissions and improve the efficiency of their transport services.

Carbon labelling must indeed be built on a credible CountEmissions EU methodology and use existing knowledge as much as possible. It should nevertheless have a simple design and must apply to all transport modes and business segments.

In our Position Paper below, CER provides examples to highlight the added value of such a label in reversing the EU's GHG emissions gap in transport, and we outline a recipe for policy makers in addressing the various challenges to tackle before coming up with a legislative proposal.