Calories or carbon? Better labelling helps consumers make more climate-conscious choices

The author contends that transparency in material production is essential for the green transition, suggesting that end-products should feature labels similar to food nutrition labels to document their environmental footprint. Highlighting the paradox of aluminium—which is essential for green technologies but energy-intensive to produce—the text calls for the use of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and adherence to EU sustainability directives to ensure 'green' labels are meaningful and based on traceability throughout the value chain.

• Material production is a significant contributor to global climate change, accounting for approximately 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
• Aluminium presents a sustainability paradox: while it is a critical enabler for the green transition, its production is energy-intensive and the extraction of bauxite impacts ecosystems, communities, and the climate.
• To accelerate the green transition, the author advocates for better labelling systems and incentives for products with higher recyclability or lower footprints, noting that generic 'green' labels are often insufficient.
• The author proposes using Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) to document material performance, citing the EU's taxonomy for environmentally sustainable activities and its sustainability reporting directive as frameworks for pursuing these goals.

APA

Simensen, H. (2025). Calories or carbon? Better labelling helps consumers make more climate-conscious choices. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/energy-transition/better-labelling-consumer-choices-carbon/

Chicago

Simensen, Hanne. Calories or carbon? Better labelling helps consumers make more climate-conscious choices. World Economic Forum, 2025. https://www.weforum.org/stories/energy-transition/better-labelling-consumer-choices-carbon/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Simensen |first1=Hanne |title=Calories or carbon? Better labelling helps consumers make more climate-conscious choices |publisher=World Economic Forum |date=17 January 2025 |url=https://www.weforum.org/stories/energy-transition/better-labelling-consumer-choices-carbon/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{simensen2025calories, author = {Simensen, Hanne}, title = {{Calories or carbon? Better labelling helps consumers make more climate-conscious choices}}, publisher = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2025}, month = jan, url = {https://www.weforum.org/stories/energy-transition/better-labelling-consumer-choices-carbon/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }