Christchurch Airport drops ‘climate positive’ claim

Christchurch Airport has stopped calling itself “climate positive” in its marketing after it was accused of greenwashing. However, the airport maintains the term is a “factually accurate” description of its business operations. A complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority said Christchurch International Airport Limited’s (CIAL) use of the phrase was misleading as the calculations it was based on did not include emissions from flights. CIAL data shows flights in and out of the airport generated more than 675,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions last year. “To claim that the airport is ‘climate positive’ is grossly misleading, incorrect and frankly ridiculous,” the complainant said. However, the airport maintained the term was not misleading, as it had been independently certified climate positive. To achieve that, the business was required to offset at least 120% of “controllable” emissions. Emissions from flights are not classified as controllable. CIAL said it prioritised reducing carbon emissions over offsetting them and had significantly cut direct emissions. Remaining operational emissions were offset in order to achieve net zero.<br/>