Like many companies large and small these days, Qantas wants you to know that it cares about the future of the planet.

To that end, they’re directing a flood of marketing at those of us who want to do what we can to help prevent climate catastrophe, or at least prevent it from getting too much worse.

Qantas passengers can choose to fly “carbon neutral”, for example, and the airline says it’s on board with “sustainable aviation fuels”. The airline’s overall promise is that it is on track to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

Net-zero is an ambitious but vague term. It generally means that a business is performing the miracle of removing as much carbon emissions from the atmosphere as possible through other means, which would be a very tall order for an airline.

The Climate Council said the mechanisms companies are supposed to use to reach net zero emissions – such as carbon offsetting and carbon sequestration – are highly debatable.

Still, these pledges sound like a good thing, given that Qantas has spewed around 17.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) across the globe in 2023-2024. The annual emissions of larger airlines would, of course, be even higher.

Climate Integrity files charges of greening

Australian advocacy group Climate Integrity says Qantas’ claims are too vague and unsubstantiated to mean much. For these reasons, the NGO filed a complaint in October this year with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which flagged several cases of potential greenwashing.

The allegations are simple: Qantas has no solid basis for the green claims in its marketing materials because its reliance on fossil fuels remains huge, and will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. In addition, they argue that Qantas’ net zero plan lacks clear targets and has yet to reveal a scientifically credible transition strategy.

For Climate Integrity, instances of alleged greenwashing include language such as “your contributions are used to purchase carbon offsets from accredited, high-integrity projects around the world” and “carbon offsets allow us to help offset these emissions by purchasing of compensations that eliminate, reduce or avoid emissions into the atmosphere”. They argue that these assurances are not supported by credible evidence.

The science is indisputable – burning fossil fuels is the biggest driver of climate change, and Qantas has a long-term reliance on fossil fuels.

Climate Integrity Director Claire Snyder

The idyllic images of turtles swimming in the Great Barrier Reef in Qantas reports are another example of potential greenwashing, according to Climate Integrity, as it gives the false impression that the airline is acting sustainably and reducing environmental damage.

The organization’s case hinges on a hard-to-dispute reality: For now, air travel is one of those instances where we need to pause in our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint.

“A Qantas customer who chooses the ‘fly carbon neutral’ option for their flight may believe that the climate impact of their journey has been offset or significantly reduced,” says Director of Climate Integrity Claire Snyder. “But this is not supported by science and therefore misrepresents customers’ perception of the sustainability of flying.”

After all, it’s a jet-powered vehicle going somewhere around 925 km/h that we’re traveling on.

“The science is indisputable – burning fossil fuels is the biggest driver of climate change, and Qantas has a long-term reliance on fossil fuels,” says Snyder. “Greenwashing on this scale creates a false sense of progress and undermines the urgent action needed to achieve zero emissions by 2050.”

Greenwashing creates a false sense of progress, says Climate Integrity director Claire Snyder.

EU airlines have asked for greenwashing

The climate integrity complaint to the ACCC follows a major EU airline greenwashing case earlier this year. In March, a Dutch court ruled that the Dutch subsidiary of Air France-KLM had misled customers about its environmental commitments. Advocating to use more biofuels or plant trees “would only marginally reduce environmental impact and give the wrong impression that flying with KLM is sustainable,” the court found, according to the Reuters report.

Derik Broekhoff, a senior scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute who wrote a report that formed the basis of the KLM case, says environmentally conscious consumers should not be bought into green terminology.

“Carbon neutral is not the same as zero emissions. Using carbon credits cannot turn an unsustainable flight into a sustainable one, and consumers still need to be careful about their travel choices,” says Broekhoff. “It is not fair for airlines to claim that purchasing carbon credits will offset fossil fuel emissions.”

Using carbon credits cannot turn an unsustainable flight into a sustainable one, and consumers still need to be careful about their travel choices.

Derik Broekhoff, Senior Scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute

Especially if the volume of these emissions means the airline won’t be able to meet the Paris Climate Agreement’s goals of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures.

Following the Dutch case, EU consumer protection authorities continued to investigate the alleged greenwashing practices of 20 other airlines. Notice practices include:

• leading customers to believe that paying an extra tax to finance non-aviation environmental projects or support alternative fuels will reduce their contribution to CO2 emissions
• using the term “sustainable aviation fuels” without providing evidence of how they reduce the environmental impact of air travel
• throwing around general terms like “green”, “sustainable” or “responsible” in a general way without supporting evidence
• claiming the airline is moving towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions without verifiable commitments and independent monitoring
• providing CO2 calculators for certain flights without reliable evidence that they are accurate
• showing comparisons of CO2 emissions of flights without showing sufficient and accurate information based on the comparisons.

Climate Integrity says the scale of Qantas’ CO2 emissions undermines the validity of its sustainability claims.

Airlines are not the only ones to blame

Climate Integrity’s complaint to the ACCC was lodged by the Environmental Defenders Office, a Sydney-based NGO that brings legal cases aimed at preserving and protecting the environment. The complaint alleges that using terms such as “sustainable aviation fuels” in marketing materials without definitive evidence that Qantas uses them is inherently an act of greenwashing, which is illegal in Australia.

And it’s not just airlines that play fast and loose with environmental claims. A report on climate integrity, prepared by the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney and released in March this year, highlights a number of other major Australian corporations – including Rio Tinto, BlueScope Steel, Woolworths Group, Coles Group and Telstra – whose net Zero commitments have been found to lack scientific rigor and lag behind global best practices.

The report followed an ACCC investigation in 2023 which found that the environmental statements of over half of the 247 businesses (57%) reviewed included potential breaches of greenwashing.

“Doing what we can,” says Qantas

A Qantas spokesperson admitted to CHOICE that “aviation is a particularly difficult sector to mitigate” when it comes to reducing CO2 emissions, but the airline has a responsibility “to do the best we can with what’s available now “.

“High-integrity carbon offsets are critical to meeting net emissions reduction targets until sustainable aviation fuel and low- and zero-emission technologies are more readily available,” the spokesperson says.

Qantas has outlined the launch of a $400 million climate fund with Airbus to help accelerate the establishment of a sustainable aviation fuel industry as well as the development of nature-based fuel options.

Like all aspects of decarbonisation, objectives, availability and effectiveness may change

Qantas spokesperson

“The journey to zero net emissions will not be linear and one airline will not be able to solve this alone,” the spokesperson says, adding that the airline’s goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050 is supported by “robust offsetting of carbon emissions. and the sustainable aviation fuel procurement plan’.

But given that sustainable air travel is probably still a long way off, should Qantas take its environmental commitments so seriously in its marketing to customers today and assure us that it will achieve net zero emissions by mid-century?

The airline admits that the science behind its mitigation efforts is a work in progress and that “like all aspects of decarbonisation, goals, availability and effectiveness are subject to change”.

(Photos courtesy of Climate Integrity.)

Stock images: Getty unless otherwise noted.