More than 20 European consumer organizations have filed a complaint to stop what they call misleading greenwashing claims by a series of airlines.

The complaint is filed with the European Commission and the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC). It is directed against 17 airlines, including those in the Lufthansa Group (among which Brussels Airlines), Air France, KLM, and Ryanair.

Unfair commercial practices

The consumer organizations, including the European umbrella organization BEUC and Belgian consumer organization Testaankoop/Test Achat (TA), speak of unfair commercial practices by the airlines when they claim that it is possible to fly green or sustainable.

Some airlines, for instance, allow passengers to offset or neutralize the CO2 emissions of the flight or pay a contribution to the development of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). In the first 100 days since the introduction of Lufthansa group’s Green Fares, for example, around 200 000 guests have already opted for such a flight within Europe or North Africa.

But none of the strategies adopted by the airline industry can prevent greenhouse gas emissions, the consumer organizations denounced. SAFs, for instance, will, at best, not be massively available for another 15 years, they say. And due to the European Commission’s very modest targets, they will make up only a tiny part of aircraft fuel tanks.

Refunding of the so-called green fares

More to the point: when passengers have paid a surcharge to fly green, they believe extra money should be refunded. This is the case with Brussels Airlines, among others. It offers so-called green fares, where passengers pay extra to neutralize their flight’s CO2 emissions and fly more sustainably.

“Whether passengers pay a green fare or not, their flight still emits harmful gases to the climate,” says TA spokesperson Laura Clays. “Unfortunately, technological solutions to decarbonize aviation will not soon become a large-scale reality. Therefore, airlines should stop giving consumers the impression that they are choosing a sustainable mode of transport.” The Belgian consumer organization has also contacted the economic inspectorate.

‘Aware of carbon footprint’

Brussels Airlines has not yet received the complaint itself and so cannot yet respond to it in substance, said Joëlle Neeb, spokesperson for the airline. She adds that Brussels Airlines and parent group Lufthansa are aware of their carbon footprint and that their ambition is to reduce CO2 emissions by half by 2030 compared to 2019.

By 2050, they aim to be carbon neutral. “Sustainable jet fuel, fleet renewal, operational efficiency, intermodality, and a single European sky are the main levers for reducing the impact of aviation,” she concluded.

Twice as many passengers by 2050

In general, the aviation sector expects that the world fleet will double in 20 years, and the sector is counting on a doubling of air traffic by 2050, i.e., around 9 billion passengers per year, compared to 4,35 today.

They all focus on technological innovation, such as SAFs or electric revolutionary models that run, for example, on hydrogen. But none of them is planning to reduce traffic, a paradigm that faces much criticism.

According to Euroactiv, CO2 emissions increased by 129% between 1990 and 2017 despite the energy efficiency of new aircraft improving by 18% over the same period. Furthermore, only road transport emissions are projected to decrease until 2030.

Transport & Environment, a clean transport campaign group, is also fiercely critical of European policy. Under the EU’s Taxonomy, more than 90% of Airbus’ order book could be considered green, despite them still running exclusively on fossil kerosene in the next decade. At the same time, the group says nearly a third of low-cost giant Ryanair’s future fleet would pass the threshold.

Flight quotas during life?

On Wednesday, the Le Monde newspaper published some interesting figures about aviation and its CO2. According to their figures, based on various sources, the aviation sector is responsible for 2,5 to 3% of global CO2 emissions, depending on whether or not we consider emissions due to the process of extracting oil, refining it, and transporting fuel. Generally, aviation consumes 8% of the world’s oil annually.

Aviation’s contribution to global warming exceeds its share of emissions and reaches almost 6%. Only 11% of the world’s population took a plane in 2018; only 4% went abroad. And 1% of travelers in the world emit 50% of CO from air travel.

Or, to put it another way: the use of aviation is unevenly distributed around the world, where North America emits far more CO2 than, say, Europe and, indeed, Africa because they travel more kilometers by air.

And airlines have indeed made enormous progress in terms of emissions. In 2018, one kilometer by plane for a passenger required about five times less energy than in 1973. Yet, global emissions have been multiplied by 2,8 over the same period because air traffic multiplied by 13 in 45 years.

The newspaper even quotes an energy expert pleading to establish flight quotas during life. According to the expert, limiting each person to about four plane trips over a lifetime would be necessary o make aviation sector emissions bearable.