U-turn or pirouette?

When did you last hear an industry ask for more legislation? Well, now it has happened! It is the European manufacturers of white goods, CECED, who say that Voluntary Agreements do not work and ask for legislative measures on energy performance standards. They claim that a faster replacement 188 million large domestic appliances more than 10 years old could save 22 million tonnes of CO₂ annually, and they substantiate their claims with a set of fact sheets.

The problem, they say, is that present labelling is poorly enforced and there are "free-riders" that undermine the fair competition. Also, consumers are reluctant to replace functioning goods.

In the case of enforcement, one could recall that the manufacturers have not always greeted, for example, revisions and monitoring of labelling with joy. Now it shows that the situation when all equipment is in the best class (A) and no one really monitors the market is not good (to put it mildly).

As for replacement of functioning equipment, it is important that the old item does not find its way to another place and user, but really is scrapped! Denmark tried a scrapping rebate many years ago where the customer was rewarded proportionally to the age of the equipment that was turned in. The oldest refrigerator was said to be some 50 years old and was, of course, highly remunerated.