Summary of the scientific report of the study

Abstract

The 2021 French Climate and Resilience Act introduced an Eco-labelling display on food products to inform consumers of the environmental cost of their purchases. The construction of this eco-labelling scheme has given rise to significant methodological work with stakeholders. An interim assessment highlighted the difficulty of capturing all the dimensions of biodiversity. With this in mind, the Ministries of Ecological Transition and Agriculture and Food, along with ADEME, called on INRAE and Ifremer in 2022 to better document this biodiversity component, focusing on production practices. In order to inform public policy more widely, the public authorities have chosen to rely on voluntary standards that require the certification of practices. The development of these voluntary standards are also at the heart of many debates on the relationship between sustainable production and consumption. The study, entitled «BiodivLabel», was carried out by a multidisciplinary committee of scientific experts from public research and higher education organizations.