Advertising: environmental marketing claims: carbon credits.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide specific details on the criteria for carbon crediting programs beyond mentioning they are specified in regulations and other unspecified criteria.

Advertising Rules for Environmental Claims

This law sets rules for companies to follow when they make environmental claims about their products, especially if those claims involve carbon credits.

What This Bill Does

• Establishes a defense in lawsuits against false or misleading environmental marketing claims if the company complies with certain disclosure requirements and uses approved carbon credits.
• Requires the State Air Resources Board to publish and maintain a list of carbon crediting programs that meet specific criteria by an unspecified date after January 1, 2027.

Who It Names or Affects

• Companies making environmental marketing claims

Terms To Know

Carbon credits

A certificate representing one ton of carbon dioxide emissions that has been avoided or removed from the atmosphere.

Net zero emissions

When a company's total greenhouse gas emissions are balanced out by an equal amount of reductions or removals elsewhere in the world.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify how many days after January 1, 2027, the State Air Resources Board must publish and maintain the list of approved carbon crediting programs.
• It is unclear what happens to the law after January 1, 2032.

Official Summary Text

AB 1911, as amended, Rogers.
Advertising: environmental marketing claims: carbon credits.
Under existing law, it is unlawful for a person to make an untruthful, deceptive, or misleading environmental marketing claim, whether explicit or implied. A violation of this requirement is a misdemeanor.
This bill
would
would, until January 1, 2032,
establish a
defense to
presumption in
any suit or complaint brought under the above-described provision
if the person’s
that a defendant’s
environmental marketing claim
is valid if the defendant complies with specified disclosure requirements pertaining to voluntary carbon offsets and net zero emissions claims and the claim
is based on the voluntary use of a carbon credit issued by a carbon crediting program that is (1) approved by the State Air Resources Board pursuant to specified regulations, (2) approved by the International Civil Aviation Organization to supply credits for a specified carbon offsetting scheme, or (3) meets other specified
criteria. The bill would require the state board, within ____ days of January 1, 2027, to publish and maintain
criteria and appears on
a list
of
published by the State Air Resources Board containing
carbon crediting programs that satisfy
the criteria set
forth in the third category.
those criteria.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF