![\"\"](\"https:\/\/reset.earth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/image-17.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn Brussels, on the other hand, measures continue to be taken that, of course, apply to French territory. European deputies thus adopted the day before yesterday by a large majority a directive banning greenwashing and misleading information on products. According to the Parliament's press release<\/a> , generic environmental claims and other misleading commercial arguments will be banned. This refers to claims such as \"environmentally friendly,\" \"natural,\" \"biodegradable,\" \"climate neutral,\" or \"ecological\" if unsubstantiated. Only sustainability claims based on approved certification or established by public authorities will be allowed. Warranty information will need to be more visible, and a new extended warranty label will be introduced. This would be the most ambitious anti-greenwashing regulation in the world, according to European elected officials. The directive must now also receive final approval from the Council. It will then be published in the Official Journal, and member states will have 24 months to transpose it into national law. Furthermore, another directive, still under discussion, is intended to work in parallel with the directive on green claims, which is currently at the committee review stage in Parliament. The next directive on green claims will be more precise and will define in more detail the conditions for using environmental claims. Greenwashers had better watch out if they don't want to quickly find themselves in court\u2026 Danone should know, currently being sued by American consumers in a class action. An irony for a company regularly rewarded for its climate commitments. Danone, a mission-driven B Corp-certified company, has in recent days become \"a symbol of consumer distrust of corporate climate commitments\", Novethic<\/a>recounts. Since January 10, the agri-food group has been facing legal action regarding its carbon neutrality claim on Evian brand water bottles. According to Reuters news agency, consumers say they would not have bought Evian bottles if they had known Danone's manufacturing process allowed CO2 to be released into the atmosphere or caused other forms of pollution. Since 2020, Evian has been certified \"carbon neutral.\" But the mechanism for achieving this \"neutrality\" relies on carbon offsetting. Concretely, Danone buys carbon credits, for example through tree planting or the production of renewable energy, to offset the emissions it produces. This concept of \"carbon neutrality through offsetting,\" soon to be banned at European level, is the source of many companies' troubles. Evian is not the only one being sued for carbon neutrality claims. Last July, the Grantham Institute estimated that there were more than 80 lawsuits against companies accused of misleading promises or failing to implement promised climate efforts. To the point that several groups have decided to backpedal. EasyJet, Gucci, Nestl\u00e9\u2026 companies are preferring to renounce this claim. They are wise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The \" never again that of the week<\/strong> \", in a clever transition to our weekly sections, is therefore this recent advertisement from KLM, which on Facebook<\/a> explains \"limiting its ecological footprint on its intra-European flights\" thanks to its new coffee cups and the recovery of coffee grounds for compost \ud83d\ude0a.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The good news of the week<\/strong>, unveiled in Davos, is that French business leaders are more aware than their international counterparts of the effects of climate and ecological changes in general on their business. According to the 27th annual study of business leaders by PwC, which surveyed 4,700 executives in over 100 countries, 30% \"only\" of them think that climate will push them to transform their business in the near future, but this proportion rises to 53% for French CEOs. This awareness can be largely explained by the French regulatory context. France has put in place binding regulations for many years, notably the obligation of extra-financial reporting for the largest listed companies on their social and environmental impacts, and its texts have often since been ahead of European legislation, according to the survey authors. This has created cultural acclimatization. Another hypothesis, a bit fragile, we admit: a growing number of French business leaders have subscribed to Breaking (RE)NEWS<\/a>\u00a0\ud83d\ude09. But more seriously, we already know, Le Point<\/a>tells us, that the trend will accelerate in 2024, with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which will require large companies to collect and publish a host of environmental data, including greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, impact on natural areas or local communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The study of the week<\/strong> also comes from Davos, with in the same spirit the World Economic Forum publishing its annual report<\/a> 2024 on risks to the global economy. Still at the level of perception, as they say at M\u00e9t\u00e9o-France, the perception is correct:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If, on a two-year horizon, the main risk is disinformation, fake news, and other insidious propaganda \u2013 but could that be linked to the imminence of the US presidential election and the resounding return of Donald Trump? \u2013 environmental determinants dominate the top spots at 10 years: climate crisis, exceeding planetary boundaries, biodiversity loss, and resource scarcity are identified as the main risks weighing on the planet's economic development. No one can say we didn't know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To stay in a good spirit, the optimistic quote of the week<\/strong> is signed by Bruno Bonnell: \"France is a paradise for entrepreneurs,\" he explains to L'Express<\/a>, taking stock of the France 2030 program to date. He also defends against the supposed relative slowness of fund allocation: \"Those who imagine that in two to three months, we can identify on French territory the future companies that will shape the future of nuclear power or give birth to the future quantum computer, are dreamers!\" Thus, he continues, \"only 1 in 3 files is approved after a six or seven-month review process. That is the minimum, given the excellence requirement we have set for ourselves.\" We still regret that the majority of green financing is associated with decarbonization and that little is allocated to resources, circularity, materials, green chemistry\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The confirmation of the words of the week<\/strong> (!) by Bruno Bonnell is provided to us by EY's venture capital annual barometer<\/a> : green industry start-ups top French fundraising in 2023. Greentech start-ups attracted the most investment from funds last year, whereas digital had predominated until now. The barometer also confirms the end of the post-Covid euphoria, with fundraising overall down 38% compared to 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The accounting innovation of the week<\/strong> is decidedly ecological. Having been engaged for many years in thinking about the sustainable dimension of its activity, the Grand Port Maritime de La Rochelle will soon begin a process to adopt green accounting. This ecological accounting approach is unprecedented at this scale, La Tribune affirms<\/a>. Based on the C.A.R.E. methodology<\/a> (Comprehensive Accounting in Respect of Ecology), this accounting aims to directly guide organizations and is not simply reporting, even if it is of course in line with the CSRD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The penalty of the week<\/strong> could soon apply to electronic devices and household appliances with a poor repairability score. This is at least the ambition of a draft decree submitted for public consultation last October 30 by the Ministry of Ecological Transition, thus implementing a measure of the AGEC law of February 2020. This eco-modulation system also provides, as a counterpart, a bonus for virtuous devices in terms of repairability. The penalty would be 20 euros, while the bonus would be 40 euros. This is provoking numerous hostile reactions from certain producer and consumer lobbies, who fear an inflationary effect affecting \"the least well-off French\" who might not be able to \"invest in premium products.\" For them, entry-level models, for example smartphones, would be more often penalized. Questioned by Le Monde<\/a>, the ministry replies that \"there are entry-level models with a good repairability index,\" such as Orange's Neva Leaf (139 euros, repairability index 8.8\/10). An example that should encourage producers \"to design more repairable smartphones.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n The military digression of the week<\/strong> was the subject of a serious investigation<\/a> transmitted to the United Nations, unveiled by the British daily The Guardian and then reported by L'Express<\/a> : in two months, the new Gaza war has produced as many greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as New Zealand in a year. As for Ukraine, it would rather represent the GHG emissions of the Benelux. Annually worldwide, conflicts and wars would represent more than 5% of the planet's GHGs, and that would place military conflict, if it were a state, at the same level as India\u2026 A personal suggestion from the author of these lines, who therefore assumes its naivety: what if we banned wars?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pollution of the week<\/strong> concerns more than 160,000 inhabitants in Auvergne Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes and involves, as often, PFAS, so-called \"forever chemicals,\" which infest tap water, according to the Regional Health Agency. If there is no immediate risk to the population, 50 municipalities must implement measures to reduce this contamination. Lib\u00e9ration<\/a>, which mentions this pollution, recalls: these per- and polyfluoroalkyl compounds (a family of over 4,700 molecules) have non-stick and waterproof properties and are massively present in everyday life: Teflon pans, food packaging, waterproof textiles, cars... Almost indestructible, they accumulate over time in the air, soil, river water, food, and even the human body, hence their nickname of \"forever\" pollutants. With long-term exposure, they can have effects on fertility or promote certain cancers, according to numerous studies. Since June 2023, thousands of industrial sites will have to conduct a campaign of \"identification and analysis\" of their PFAS discharges. In the south of Lyon, in April 2023, excessively high PFAS levels had already been detected in eggs from 16 municipalities. Given the already identified impact of PFAS on sterility, the presidential plan to multiply babies also implies acting on chemical pollution \ud83d\ude09.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The video of the week<\/strong> is offered to us by the Television News of France 2<\/a>, which went to film a 432 km long river in Guatemala, the Rio Motagua. Its peculiarity? It concentrates, we are told, 3% of global plastic pollution! A local NGO has installed a floating barrier, which daily recovers up to 400 tons of waste, before it reaches the translucent waters of the Caribbean Sea\u2026 It must be said that more than half of Guatemala's population does not (yet) benefit from a garbage collection system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/reset.earth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/image-18.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/reset.earth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/image-19.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/reset.earth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/image-20.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/reset.earth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/image-21.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/reset.earth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/image-22.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/reset.earth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/image-23.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/reset.earth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/image-24.png\")
<\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"