The Directive, first introduced on 22 March 2023, aims to ensure that companies substantiate their environmental claims to combat greenwashing. Once the Directive enters into force, Member States will have 18 months to transpose it into their national legislation.

British Wool said the outcome of the meeting did not go the way it would have hoped from a natural fibres’ perspective.

There have been ongoing concerns that synthetic materials are receiving an easy ride at the expense of natural fibres. Since the Directive was first proposed, a global collective of farmers and supporters have spoken out against it. In an open letter, they warned that a methodology that could be used to substantiate claims is flawed. More than 900 signatories representing more than 500,000 farmers around the world – including Mongolia, India and the US – claim the methodology unfairly favours synthetics and “misrepresents natural fibres as harmful to the environment”.

The methodology prompting this backlash is part of the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF), first introduced in 2013