Warning shot fired at airlines over greenwashing

A new landmark legal ruling is a warning shot for airlines that claim to be on a path to net zero emissions with no a credible plan to get there.

The Dutch airline KLM was found, by The District Court of Amsterdam, to have misled customers with their environmental claims and advertising. KLM’s claim that it was committed to the goals of the Paris Agreement was also found to be illegal.

The ruling is a timely wakeup 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. 

We spoke to Guardian Australia about the recent ruling and why Australian airlines like Qantas and Virgin Australia should be paying close attention.

Our recent comprehensive study in partnership with the UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures found that Qantas’s decarbonisation plans included a number of low integrity practices and concluded that Qantas has no comprehensive, full-costed or independently verified plan for reducing their emissions in line with a scientific pathway. 

Flying is an extremely polluting activity and suggesting that we can endlessly offset that impact and continue to grow aviation is reckless and misleading.

In 2024, if you are an airline without a clear plan to phase out fossil fuels then you can't claim to be on a flight path to net zero.