Labelling household appliances allows consumers to make informed decisions when buying new energy-related products and enables them to reduce their carbon footprint while saving money on their energy bills. However, the current system has become too complicated. Today Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament's energy committee backed a proposal to simplify the labelling system and make it easier for consumers to spot the most energy-efficient products on the market.
S&D spokesperson on this issue, Martina Werner MEP, said:
“At the moment there is an overpopulation of appliances in the A+++, A++, A+ efficiency classes which in some cases means that an appliance with an A+ rating is actually the worst performing on the market. This is the case with washing machines for example. Today we called for a reset of the energy labels back to an A-G scale in order to make it a consumer-friendly and easy-to-understand tool promoting the most energy-efficient appliances."
“We also proposed amendments to the initial Commission proposal in order to ensure that testing reflects real-life use. We don’t want these tests to be done in labs and then find out that the actual energy consumption is much higher in the real world, like the 'Dieselgate' scandal affecting real car emissions.”
