In a significant legal development, a consortium of environmental groups has issued a stern warning to 71 airlines, including prominent carriers such as Ryanair, Delta, Lufthansa, and Easyjet, regarding potential greenwashing practices. The legal letter, dispatched by ClientEarth, Fossielvrij, and Reclame Fossielvrij, establishes stringent parameters for airline sustainability advertising in the wake of a precedent-setting judgment against KLM’s green advertisements in March this year.
The Dutch Court’s ruling against KLM, which found the airline’s advertising in violation of EU consumer law, has set a legal benchmark for defining greenwashing in the aviation sector. The court’s decision specifically identified KLM’s sustainability claims as misleading, particularly those related to ‘sustainable aviation fuels’, ‘offsetting’, and ‘net zero by 2050’.
Johnny White, a legal expert at ClientEarth, contended that these misleading sustainability assertions are not unique to KLM, but rather part of a wider industry narrative aimed at sustaining air traffic growth amidst the escalating climate crisis. He cautioned that airlines persisting in the promotion of these messages are in contravention of the law and exposed to potential legal action from a multitude of actors.
The legal letter provides explicit guidelines, prohibiting airlines from utilizing the label ‘sustainable aviation fuel’ or the abbreviation ‘SAF’ in consumer-facing communication. It also advises against the use of ambiguous terminology such as ‘more sustainable aviation fuel’, as these imply a significant contribution to the reduction of aviation’s climate impact, which may not be accurate.
Furthermore, the letter clarifies that airlines are proscribed from making ‘offsetting’ claims. This encompasses suggestions that customers can counterbalance the climate impact of a flight by contributing to tree planting initiatives or the costs of biofuels. The document also stipulates that airlines not implementing substantial emissions reductions cannot assert alignment with the Paris Agreement or a trajectory towards ‘net zero’ by 2050.
The environmental groups also underscored the incompatibility of aviation industry expansion with the curtailment of dangerous climate change. Despite the Dutch Court not ruling against KLM’s business growth, the letter underscores that the airline’s unlawful claims seem to be part of an industry-wide climate PR strategy to safeguard the industry’s ‘licence to grow’.
Hiske Arts, a campaigner at Fossielvrij, criticized the aviation industry’s growth plans, arguing that they undermine actions to address the climate crisis. The organizations are lobbying for a tobacco-style ad ban on air travel and other fossil-fuel based goods, pointing to the significant harm these products inflict on people’s health and livelihoods by exacerbating dangerous climate change.
An airline industry executive dismissed the letter a “posturing” and told the Green Mobility Magazine that “NGOs need to stop trying to make everything they don’t like the new tobacco.. Tobacco is 100% pure harm. whereas air travel unlocks a wide range of societal benefits, whether it’s connecting millions of people across Europe and with the wider world, providing jobs or driving economic growth”.
The legal letter serves as a stern warning to the aviation industry, suggesting airlines to tread carefully between promoting their sustainability initiatives and misleading consumers about their environmental footprint. Non-compliance could lead to costly legal repercussions.
