QANTAS has played down allegations of greenwashing by a climate advocacy group, telling travelBulletin it acknowledges that aviation is a particularly hard-to-abate sector when it comes to carbon reduction.
Climate Integrity has lodged a complaint with the ACCC, claiming Qantas’ marketing content paints the carrier “as a sustainability leader on the path to net zero by 2050”, despite having no credible targets.
However, in response Qantas said that high integrity carbon offsets are key to meeting net emissions reduction targets until sustainable aviation fuel and low and zero-emissions technologies are more readily available.
“That’s why we launched a $400 million climate fund with Airbus to provide direct investments to help accelerate the establishment of a domestic SAF industry as well as high integrity nature-based solutions,” Qantas said.
“The journey to net zero emissions won’t be linear and one airline will not be able to solve this alone.
“Our targets are underpinned by a robust carbon offset and SAF procurement plan and having the right partners in place to help deliver, and we understand that the regulation and science behind carbon offsets and SAF is developing, like all aspects of decarbonisation, and that targets, availability and effectiveness may change.”
In its complaint to the ACCC, Climate Integrity called on the ACCC to investigate whether certain statements made by Qantas about the sustainability of its business and its plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 are in breach of sections 18 and/or 29 of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), being Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
The advocacy body said that statements made on the Qantas website about its green credentials are misleading and deceptive, namely its repetition of the term sustainability and expects to achieve net zero by 2050.
In its complaint, Climate Integrity argued that: Qantas’ repeated use of the vague and broad term ‘sustainability’ is incongruous with its current and likely future emissions given its long term reliance on fossil fuels.
It also suggested its ‘Fly Carbon Neutral’ option is likely to mislead consumers into thinking that their flight is sustainable and/or makes no significant contribution to climate change.
Qantas was also called out for not disclosing a science-aligned, credible methodology to substantiate alignment with its stated commitment to the Paris Agreement.
