France’s lower house of parliament has adopted an amendment to new anti-waste legislation, aimed at providing broadband users with information on their data usage carbon footprint, reports Universfreebox. The amendment wants to impose a new obligation on telecom operators from January 2022, requiring them to inform customers of the level of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from their data consumption. Its main purpose is to raise public awareness of the impact of digital activities on the environment.
Presented in July, the proposed anti-waste legislation has already passed its first reading in the French Senate and is now being debated in the lower house of parliament. Among the amendments already adopted, French MPs have recently voted in favour of banning all publicity for ‘Black Friday’ shopping days to limit what they believe to be a form of overconsumption.
The draft law also targets devices such as smartphones, with proposals to restrict current practices that shorten their lifespan. In practice, MPs want to fine industry players and manufacturers found guilty of limiting the availability of both the software and hardware components of their products, in a bid to protect environmental sustainability.
