How France's new labelling laws could hurt wool

Talks have been held between Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian Wool Innovation and WoolProducers Australia amidst concerns over the new Ecobalyse calculator, due to be introduced in Europe's autumn.

Similarly to the European Commission's Product Environmental Footprint labelling, which also poses major concerns for the wool industry, the tool will give clothing sold online an environmental impact score.

Scores start at 0 and go upwards, with a higher number indicating a bigger impact on the environment.

Using the beta version of the tool, a wool sweater made in France using wool spun in China receives a score of 2818 points.

Changing the fabric to polyester sees the score drop to 1441 points.

While initially the scheme will be voluntary, there is the possibility it will eventually become compulsory.

A DFAT spokesman said the wool industry had brought to their attention the concerns about the potential impact on exports of Australian natural fibres to France.

"The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is committed to removing, where possible, any unjustified barriers to trade impacting Australian exporters," he said.

"We are investigating the Ecobalyse scheme further to identify possible action."

AWI CEO John Roberts will fly to France this week for talks with French government officials about the scheme.

Mr Roberts said AWI's top two concerns are inequitable comparisons and overlooking the environmental good of wool.

"Comparisons between clothing made from natural fibres and fossil fuel-based fibres can only be equitable where the same life cycle stages are considered," he said.

"All the environmental impacts of forming natural fibres on the farm are counted... while the environmental impacts of forming oil are not.

"In life cycle assessment, oil is considered an environmentally 'free' raw material, with environmental accounting only commencing at the wellhead.

"This difference in system boundary has a significant effect on the Ecobalyse score because the environmental impacts of growing natural fibres is typically large - often exceeding the total impacts of all other life stages, resulting in products made from natural fibres appearing to score worse."

Mr Roberts said life cycle assessment based systems are focused on measuring environmental harm, consequently they are largely blind to environmental 'good' attributes of wool such as renewability, biodegradability and sequestration of atmospheric carbon into the farm.

"To deliver long term sustainability, these schemes must firstly assess environmental good and then subtract the environmental bad," he said.

"Only natural fibres, which at end-of-life return their nutrients to the soil for use again can be sustainable in the long term.

"Fossil fuel-based fibres are not sustainable by definition - as they will eventually run out."

Mr Roberts said Ecobalyse and Europe's PEF share similar problems in their inability to help guide sustainable consumer purchasing choices in an equitable way.

"However, the developers of Ecobalyse have been more novel and tried harder to introduce measures to address the limitations of LCA, as well as deliver France's environmental policies," he said.

"For example, they have modified LCA methodology to reward the attribute of 'naturalness' in raw materials, and they've also moved away from PEF's reliance on physical durability testing for assessing garment lifetime - which only serves to promote polyester (due to the high tensile properties of fossil fuel based textiles).

"Ecobalyse is to be commended for its goals of addressing fast fashion and climate change.

"But without correction their methodology has a high likelihood of delivering the opposite."

Mr Roberts said he looked forward to a productive meeting with officials from France's Ministry of Ecology this where they could work towards a fairer system.

"The purpose of the new French system is to tackle fast fashion's negative environmental impacts including the use of microplastics, high water use and lack of biodegradability," he said.

"We are working to ensure these ratings systems do not disadvantage Australian wool or mislead consumers - and consequently create a barrier or disincentive to its sale in France."