Ministers are considering labeling the carbon footprint of refrigerators and washing machines

As part of efforts to promote greener products and reduce carbon emissions, washing machines and refrigerators will be marked with their carbon footprint. Ministers want to introduce a system under which products would list their "embodied emissions", which would express how many greenhouse gases were emitted during the production of the product. Officials favor a system where labels would list the emissions a product contains, along with a rating, such as A to G. An A rating would mean a "net zero" product. In consultation papers published on Thursday, the government said: "The combination of emissions data and a labeling system could provide an easy way to compare products against the best in class, as well as the raw data needed for more detailed comparisons." Ministers hope labeling would encourage people to they bought greener products, and this would help reduce emissions through market mechanisms.