Japan's Ministry Of Agriculture, Forestry And Fisheries Decided To Implement The Carbon Labelling System For Agricultural Products In April Next Year.

Japan's Ministry of agriculture, forestry and Fisheries decided recently to start implementing agricultural products in April next year.

Developed countries scramble to promote carbon labelling

Carbon labelling, a professional term called "carbon footprint calculation", refers to products.

Since 2007, the British government has set up a carbon fund to tackle climate change and encourage the promotion of carbon labelling to British companies.

Tesco, the largest supermarket in the UK, took the lead in responding.

Japan and France followed closely, encouraging their companies to mark the carbon footprint of each stage of the product life cycle in detail on commodity packaging.

The United States, Sweden, Canada, South Korea and other countries also promote the use of carbon labelling in the country.

For example, WAL-MART, the world's retail giant, requires 10 000 suppliers to complete the carbon footprint verification and paste different color carbon labels. The Swedish furniture giant IKEA asks suppliers to attach carbon labels to indicate the carbon dioxide emissions produced in the process of production, packaging and sales.

Is "carbon labelling" an armchair strategist?

The concept of "carbon labelling" has been heard, but none of the enterprises in the toy industry in Ningbo is actually implementing it.

Mr. Li, director of WAL-MART supplier and a toy company in Yuyao, said.

According to him, the acquisition of carbon labels needs to undergo strict certification. However, due to the lack of relevant standards and authoritative certification bodies at home, even though enterprises have produced low carbon labels, they have not undergone scientific certification procedures, which may become a "gimmick" in the eyes of consumers.

"Carbon labelling is mainly for export products. At present, China has not introduced carbon labels, and there is no relevant requirement for WAL-MART's shelves."

Liao Honghui, senior director of WAL-MART (China) Limited, told reporters.

It may take some time for the "carbon label" to land in Ningbo, but professionals obviously don't think so.

According to Mao Xinbin, the United Kingdom has developed carbon emission standards in the past few years, and the certification bodies certify the carbon emissions of different products.

For example, a T-shirt, initially cotton planting, through textile, printing, dyeing, packaging, pportation and other links, and then consumers wear, and then washing, until worn out and discarded, all need to know how much carbon emissions the entire life cycle.

"Ningbo's foreign trade enterprises should take the initiative to integrate with the international market, otherwise they may lose export orders in the future."

It is reported that the international standard ISO14067 for the carbon footprint of products is now in the draft stage and is scheduled to be released in 2011.

Once the international standard of carbon footprint certification is introduced, the carbon label will inevitably be added.

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How does Ningbo's foreign trade enterprises face the era of carbon labelling? The experts of the Municipal Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau suggest that the most urgent thing is to start with the fabric of the product and gradually embark on the road of low carbonization.

Take the clothing industry as an example, if the raw material of the garment is heavily used in chemical fiber fabrics, the carbon emission will be very high; if the use of silk, cotton and linen as the main raw material, the carbon emissions will drop.

"Although carbon labelling is still a voluntary act on export products, the promotion of carbon labels in more than 10 developed countries is a trend."

Relevant experts suggest that relevant departments in our city should formulate corresponding incentive policies, establish a unified carbon footprint calculation standard and label format, and encourage foreign trade enterprises to identify carbon labels on export products.