Qantas and Virgin Australia put on notice over offsets after landmark decision on greenwashing
Australian airlines could be found to have misled consumers in the way they present their net zero goals and market offset options during flight bookings, climate advocates have claimed, after a landmark legal decision on aviation “greenwashing”. The warning from Climate Integrity, a new Australia-based advocacy group, follows a Dutch court late last month ruling that airline KLM misled customers with vague environmental claims, and that its affirmation to the goals of the Paris Agreement was “misleading and therefore unlawful”. The Dutch greenwashing decision found 15 of 19 of KLM’s claims about its environmental ambitions were misleading, including that marketing statements about offsetting flights and sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) painted “too rosy a picture” of the technologies’ feasibility. A billboard ad showing a child on a swing with the statement “join us in creating a more sustainable future” was also declared misleading because it failed to explain how it related to any environmental benefit. The impression was reinforced by the background of sky, mountain and water, the court said. Claire Snyder, the director of Climate Integrity, said “Australian airlines should be paying close attention” to that decision. “The ruling is a timely wake-up call to airlines with public net zero commitments, that they must put forward concrete and credible decarbonisation plans or face the legal risk of misleading consumers and investors,” Snyder said. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has recently declared a crack down on “greenwashing”, and Snyder pointed to an analysis her group conducted that found Qantas’s decarbonisation plans featured “a number of low integrity practices”. While Snyder commended Qantas as being an early mover to pledge support for the Paris Agreement goals, her group’s analysis has concluded the airline “has no comprehensive, full-costed or independently verified plan for reducing their emissions in line with a scientific pathway”.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2024-04-02/oneworld/qantas-and-virgin-australia-put-on-notice-over-offsets-after-landmark-decision-on-greenwashing
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Qantas and Virgin Australia put on notice over offsets after landmark decision on greenwashing
Australian airlines could be found to have misled consumers in the way they present their net zero goals and market offset options during flight bookings, climate advocates have claimed, after a landmark legal decision on aviation “greenwashing”. The warning from Climate Integrity, a new Australia-based advocacy group, follows a Dutch court late last month ruling that airline KLM misled customers with vague environmental claims, and that its affirmation to the goals of the Paris Agreement was “misleading and therefore unlawful”. The Dutch greenwashing decision found 15 of 19 of KLM’s claims about its environmental ambitions were misleading, including that marketing statements about offsetting flights and sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) painted “too rosy a picture” of the technologies’ feasibility. A billboard ad showing a child on a swing with the statement “join us in creating a more sustainable future” was also declared misleading because it failed to explain how it related to any environmental benefit. The impression was reinforced by the background of sky, mountain and water, the court said. Claire Snyder, the director of Climate Integrity, said “Australian airlines should be paying close attention” to that decision. “The ruling is a timely wake-up call to airlines with public net zero commitments, that they must put forward concrete and credible decarbonisation plans or face the legal risk of misleading consumers and investors,” Snyder said. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has recently declared a crack down on “greenwashing”, and Snyder pointed to an analysis her group conducted that found Qantas’s decarbonisation plans featured “a number of low integrity practices”. While Snyder commended Qantas as being an early mover to pledge support for the Paris Agreement goals, her group’s analysis has concluded the airline “has no comprehensive, full-costed or independently verified plan for reducing their emissions in line with a scientific pathway”.<br/>
