The EU has announced a revision of the existing Ecodesign directive – what they call Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). It will set new environmental, climate and circular requirements for virtually all products produced and sold within the EU's borders.

The proposal for a new ESPR regulation, presented on 30 March 2022, as part of the so-called Circular Economy Package I, is the cornerstone of the Commission's objective to create more environmentally sustainable and circular products.

The Commission's ambition with the revision of the Ecodesign Directive is that it will help to ensure that products sold within the EU's borders will in the future be far more environmentally and climate sustainable. This must be seen in the light of the fact that the EU's material consumption today is enormous. Each individual EU citizen used the equivalent of 2021 tonnes of materials in 14 – each Dane on average equivalent to 25 tonnes of materials. On top of this, we must add that we in the EU still recycle and recycle to a far too small degree. According to figures from the EU Commission, European industries today use only 12 percent recycled materials in their production.

The proposal from the Commission is based on the existing directive on environmentally friendly design, which currently only covers energy-related products and, seen in the light of our increasing consumption in general, this proposal must establish a framework for the requirements for environmentally friendly design for virtually all products, including among other textiles (clothing and footwear), iron, steel, aluminium, furniture, tires and chemicals. It is therefore planned partly that many more product groups must be covered, and partly that the energy, environmental and circular requirements for the products must be expanded.

With the proposal, products must therefore not only be energy efficient, but also to a much greater extent circular and also be able to meet a requirement for a general reduction of their environmental and climate footprint. Specifically, with the implementation of ESPR, it will be possible to set requirements for, for example, products' durability, reusability, content of chemicals that inhibit circularity, climate and environmental footprint, resource efficiency and information requirements, including a Digital Product Passport (DPP).

According to the Commission, the proposal has the potential to deliver 2030 mtoe (Mega Tonnes of Oil Equivalent) in energy savings in 132, which corresponds to approximately 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas or almost all the natural gas that the EU in 2021 – before the war in Ukraine – imported from Russia.