Fruity cargo cult Apple has had to back down on its policy of dumping inconvient green certification after telling the world that it would not change its policy of forbidding users to change their own batteries.

The move meant that it had to leave the green certification programme EPAT but Apple did not care.  It just saw that its design meant that users had to pay it more dosh. Then it backfired as Government departments started treating Apple gear as toxic because it did not have an EPAT certificate. Now after defending its actions for days, Apple has made a huge u-turn and said the whole thing was a 'mistake.'

Bob Mansfield, Apple's senior vice-president of hardware engineering, wrote in an open letter on Apple's site that "We've recently heard from many loyal Apple customers who were disappointed to learn that we had removed our products from the EPEAT rating system. I recognise that this was a mistake. Starting today, all eligible Apple products are back on EPEAT."

He insisted that "our commitment to protecting the environment has never changed, and today it is as strong as ever." Although the fact that that commitment clearly only went as far as  “it will not cost us cash.”

EPEAT only applies to computers, but not tablets or phones. It was introduced in 2006, and is based on the IEEE 1680.1 standard.