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New Eco-mark Rules: a Significant Advancement for India’s Sustainability efforts | 26/01/2025

Interview with Ms. Leena Nandan, Former Secretary, MoEFCC, Government of India

Interview flyer Ecolabel India Interview with former secretary MoFECC

Sustainable consumption and production is one of the key approaches for accelerating the transition towards an inclusive green economy. Adoption of environmentally responsible consumption and production patterns, resulting judicious utilization of resources, is vital to ensure environmental sustainability along with economic growth.

Eco-labelling effectively identifies and establishes markets for green and efficient products. It serves as a tool that encourages environmentally and socially responsible consumer choices as well as industry practices, thereby contributing to long-term sustainability goals. Implementation of eco-labels actualizes sustainable consumption and production by fulfilling three primary objectives: environmental protection, encouraging innovations for sustainable production of environment friendly products, and consumer engagement.

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India has recently notified Eco-mark Rules, 2024 with an aim to revamp the regulatory framework of eco-labelling in the country that encourages the demand as well as production of environment-friendly products, leading to promotion of green industries.

India joined Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE) as a partner country in 2018. MoEFCC is the nodal ministry for PAGE in India. Accomplishing one of the objectives of PAGE in India, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) under PAGE conducted analytical studies, including among others, review of the Eco-mark Scheme 1991, review of global and national best practices of eco-labels, and comparative assessment of national and international eco-labels for different product categories. These analytical studies contributed to development of Eco-mark Rules 2024, notified by the Government of India in November 2024.

In this interview with PAGE, Ms. Leena Nandan, Former Secretary, MoEFCC, Government of India, explains the crucial role of Eco-labelling in advancing sustainable consumption and production.

Q1. What role do enabling mechanisms, such as eco-labelling, play in advancing sustainable consumption and production globally, particularly in emerging economies like India?

Ecolabels are granted to products meeting specified environmental criteria with respect to resource consumption and environmental impacts, in particular, the impact on climate change, biodiversity, energy consumption, generation of waste, and emissions to all environmental media.

With depleting resources and growing population, sustainable consumption and production patterns is key to sustain the livelihoods of current and future generations. As a result, Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) is one of the seventeen sustainable development goals, which makes adoption of SCP a global agenda.

Eco-labelling plays a critical role in advancing sustainable consumption and production by influencing both consumer behaviour and production practices. It empowers consumers to make informed choices and opt for products that are ecofriendly, and encourages producers to adopt more sustainable practices and shift towards greener production.

International markets are increasingly demanding environmentally friendly products, and eco-labelling provides a way to gain access to these markets.

Q2. From your perspective, what are the key challenges and opportunities in implementing eco-labelling standards, such as the Eco Mark Rules 2024, for an emerging market like India? How can these standards inspire harmonization and alignment across international markets?

Recognizing the importance of transition towards SCP, Government of India has taken regulatory measure to strengthen the ecolabelling ecosystem in the country, by publishing the Ecomark Rules on 26 September 2024. The notification of these rules revamps the regulatory framework of ecolabelling in the country. This step will encourage the demand for environment-friendly products that cause lesser adverse impacts on the environment and that promote lower energy consumption, resource efficiency & conservation, and circular economy.

As one of the largest growing economies, India has diverse consumer demographics. Ecolabels are pivotal to bridge the gap between consumer demand for sustainable products and the supply of goods that meet sustainability criteria. The implementation of Ecomark Rules 2024 will help create demand for sustainable products, thus guiding consumers towards more sustainable options, creating opportunity for informed choices. For producers, eco-labelling will serve as an incentive to adopt sustainable practices. As eco-labelling requires meeting specific sustainability criteria, it encourages businesses to innovate and adopt greener technologies.

Effective eco-labelling requires reliable infrastructure for certification, monitoring, and verification of standards. With limited availability of infrastructure and technology as well as limited consumer awareness, the mass adoption of products with ecomark poses a significant challenge.

International markets are increasingly demanding environmentally friendly products, and eco-labelling provides a way to gain access to these markets. India recognizes the importance of harmonization and alignment of ecolabelling standards across international markets. For this purpose, The Ecomark Rules, 2024 provides the provision for assessment of international ecolabelling programme for mutual recognition as well as of domestic/ international voluntary ecolabelling programme for recognition under the said rules. With this provision in place, India is taking steps to mutually recognize the international ecolabelling framework, providing an opportunity for transboundary trade of ecolabelled products.

India flag

Q3. Eco-labelling initiatives have the potential to shape global market trends. What unique features or innovations do you think can or should other emerging countries learn from this initiative by India to make eco-labelling frameworks more effective and scalable at an international level?

To enable effective implementation of regulatory framework for ecolabelling in the country, the Ecomark Rules 2024 lays down the conditions as well as procedures for grant of Ecomark. It also puts in place reporting mechanism for efficient monitoring of implementation of the said rules.

The Ecomark Rules 2024 objectively specifies the criteria which is to be met for grant of ecomark in order to ensure tangible measurement of positive environmental impacts. As per the rules, the criteria for grant of an Ecomark to a product include the following:

  • reduces pollution by minimising or eliminating the generation of waste and environmental emissions;
  • is recyclable or is made from recycled material or both;
  • reduces the use of non-renewable resources, including non-renewable energy sources and natural resources;
  • reduces the use of any material, which has adverse impacts on the environment.

Globally, the markets are prioritizing sustainability, increasing the demand for environment friendly products. The Ecomark Rules 2024 also enable assessment of international ecolabelling programme, for mutual recognition, with a view to promote harmonization of ecolabelling standards, thus enabling unimpeded trade of eco-labelled products globally.

With Ecomark Rules 2024 in place, India puts forth a comprehensive regulatory framework for eco labelling which specifies the requisite mechanism of implementation as well as institutional structure. This framework provides an allinclusive approach that can be referred to and adopted by the other nations at global level.

People on the street in india

Global partnerships play a pivotal role in supporting transition to green and inclusive economies. It provides a platform to facilitate the exchange of experiences, technologies, success stories and best practices between countries.

Q4. How do you see global partnerships, such as PAGE, playing a role in supporting countries’ efforts to transition to green and inclusive economies?

The transition to green economies, which focus on sustainable, lowcarbon, and resource-efficient growth, and inclusive economies, which aim for equitable economic development, requires significant cooperation across borders. Global partnerships play a pivotal role in supporting transition to green and inclusive economies. It provides a platform to facilitate the exchange of
experiences, technologies, success stories and best practices between countries.

Transitioning to an inclusive green economy also requires significant financial resources. Global partnerships, including cooperation between governments, multilateral development banks, and the private sector, can help mobilize funds and direct them to the national priority areas. Such partnerships also help ensure that countries’ policies align with international sustainability goals. Furthermore, International cooperation helps harmonize standards across countries, making it easier for businesses to invest in green technologies and practices that can be scaled across borders.

Promotion and adoption of sustainable consumption and production is one of the focus areas of The United Nations Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE) which puts sustainability at the heart of global economic policymaking. India joined PAGE in 2018. Under one of the key objectives of PAGE in India, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is providing support to strengthen the eco label programme to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon, resourceefficient and circular economy in India. India looks forward towards global partnerships, including through PAGE, to achieve the aim of advancing SCP as well as accelerating transition to an inclusive green economy.

Learn more

  1. Preview of India – Comparative Evaluation with International Ecolabelspdf

    India – Comparative Evaluation with International Ecolabels

    2023
  2. Preview of Discussion Paper on Sustainable Consumption and Production and the Circular Economy in Indiapdf

    Discussion Paper on Sustainable Consumption and Production and the Circular Economy in India

    2018

PAGE in India

Since 2018, PAGE’s activities in India focus on green manufacturing in textile sector, green rural development, green jobs, and enabling mechanisms for sector wise transition. It includes initiatives such as Sustainable Public Procurement, Ecolabelling, and strengthening institutional capacities for mainstreaming Inclusive Green Economy (IGE) principles in urban policy making.

PAGE is an inter-agency programme that helps countries transition to green, circular, and inclusive economies. It brings together the expertise of five UN agencies – UNEP, UNDP, ILO, UNIDO and UNITAR – that supports 22 partner countries in their transition to an inclusive green economy by providing policy advice, assessments, capacity development and analytical tools outputs.

UNEP is the lead coordinating agency for work carried out by the partnership in India.

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