Australia to launch carbon labels in 2010

A carbon reduction labeling scheme will be launched in Australia next year, informing shoppers of the overall carbon footprint of products.

Australian environmental group Planet Ark has this week announced it is to partner with the UK government-backed Carbon Trust to set up its Carbon Reduction Label program Down Under.

Under the scheme, products on store shelves will display the amount of carbon dioxide emissions generated from their manufacture through to disposal. They also have to commit to reducing the product's carbon footprint on a year-by-year basis, if they want to continue to carry the label.

The Carbon Trust launched the programme in the UK in 2007, and now has more than 60 companies carrying the label on some or all of their products.

In total, 2,500 different products now display the label ranging from fruit juice to paving stones. A number of high-profile brands have adopted the labelling system including Walkers potato crisps, Tropicana juice and Innocent Smoothies. Meanwhile, supermarket giant Tesco has vowed to roll out the label across all its own-brand products.

The US has a similar program called Certified Carbon Free, which is operated by Washington-based CarbonFund.org, while Canada uses the CarbonConnect scheme from CarbonCounted of Toronto.

CarbonFund and CarbonCounted are non-profit organisations that use rival standards to Carbon Trust's. All three earn fees from companies seeking carbon footprint labels for their goods.

The organisations use differing methodologies – and fee scales – for the calculation of carbon emissions generated through the lifecycle of a product.

However, Carbon Trust chief executive Tom Delay said that the launch of its carbon labeling scheme in Australia marked "the first step to making [it] the norm for consumer products worldwide".