17/12/2019

 

Recently, the Certification and Accreditation Administration of China (CNCA) published the labels for products with green attributes that will be replacing the China Green Product Label in the future. This is one step closer to developing a unified standard, certification and labeling system for Chinese green products.

The labels that will be replaced are: China Environmental Labelling (Type II), China Energy Conservation Certification label, China Association of Environment Protection Industry label, China Organic Products label, China Low-carbon Products label, China Water Conservation Certification label, China Recycling symbol, China Ecolabelling label.

Background:

By 2020, the Chinese government will integrate the existing environment-friendly, energy-conserving, water-conserving, recyclable, low-carbon, renewable, organic, and other related products as green products by unifying the related green product catalogs, standards, certifications and labels.

Analysis:

  1. What needs to be taken into consideration when defining green products?

All stages of a product’s life cycle such as resource attainment, production, sale, use and disposal need to be taken into consideration. Green products have characteristics such as:

  1. 5 steps for achieving the final goal:

Step 1: Develop a unified standard, certification and labeling system of green products. The standards system of green products will include a standards system for green product assessment and a standards system to support the green products industry.

Step 2: Implement a unified list of assessment standards and a certification catalog for green products.

Step 3: Improve the supervision and evaluation for the validity of green products certification.

  • Develop a credit system for green products.
  • Entrust manufacturers to be responsible for guaranteeing product quality.
  • Entrust the testing and certification of green products to certification institutions.
  • Develop a blacklist of entities that have violated laws and regulations.
  • Enhance the public disclosure of information on green products certification.

Step 4: Develop the green products information platform. Information such as policies and regulations relating to green products, standard lists, rules, procedures, product catalogs, implementation institutions, certification results and admission status will be published on the platform.

Step 5: Promote international cooperation on green products standards. By comparing and analyzing Chinese and international green products standards, China will promote the development of international green products standards and the international adoption of China’s green products standards.

  1. How to use the green products label?

There are two different labels for different kinds of green products.

Products Label
For products in the national catalog of green products (including 12 kinds of products in total).
For products not in the list but with green attributes (e.g. environmental protection, energy and water saving, recycling, low carbon, organic, as well as products in the RoHS catalog).

 

Advice:

Currently, a pilot for developing a unified standard, certification and labeling system of Chinese green products is ongoing in Hubei province, Huzhou city. Green product certification have been issued to the enterprises with eligible products. Research for replacing the current labels of products with green attributes with the China green product label will also be done in Huzhou city. Enterprises with green products and products not in the list but with green attributes can follow the policy developments of Hubei province and Huzhou city.