- Delta Air Lines claimed it was carbon neutral in marketing material, but now a lawsuit claims carbon offsets the carrier purchased overpromised.
- Delta has said the lawsuit is without legal merit and it has shifted focus away from offsets to decarbonisation.
- In 2020 it was reported that 98 percent of Delta’s emissions stemmed from its fleet of aircraft.
Carbon offsets or credits are a way for a company to offset their carbon emissions by investing in a forest or another carbon neutral activity without having to directly address their carbon emissions.
The market for carbon credits is booming and will continue to boom, according to McKinsey. In a 2021 report McKinsey said that the demand for carbon credits could increase by a factor of 15 by 2030 representing a value of $50 billion.
How could this possibly be such a lucrative market? Well for one, you have big corporations such as air lines investing in carbon credits in a bid to offset the emissions airplanes produce. However, that practice may have landed US carrier, Delta Air Lines in trouble.
As reported by CNBC, a resident in California has filed a lawsuit against Delta based on its purchase of carbon offsets in order to claim it was the world’s first carbon neutral airline. Of issue is the assertion that the offsets that Delta purchased weren’t as effective as they claimed to be.
“Nearly all offsets issued by the voluntary carbon offset market overpromise and underdeliver on their total carbon impact due to endemic methodological errors and fraudulent accounting on behalf of offset vendors,” the lawsuit reads.
The use of carbon offsets to claim carbon neutrality is rather laughable for an airline when you learn that in 2020, according to Global Citizen, 98 percent of Delta’s carbon footprint was made by its fleet of aircraft.
It’s rather tough to determine just how much CO2 a tree absorbs – given how different all trees are – but estimates suggest the figure is around 22 kilograms per year. To put this into context, Atmosfair said in 2019 that flying from London to New York generates around 986kg of CO2 per passenger. That means you’d have to plant 44 trees and wait for them to mature for the carbon emissions for a single passenger on a single flight would be offset.
According to the lawsuit filed in California, Delta has been claiming it’s the first carbon neutral airline in the world through advertising, press releases LinkedIn posts and even in-flight napkins.
However, the firm told CNBC the class action lawsuit was “without legal merit”.
“Delta committed to carbon neutrality in March 2020, and since March 31, 2022, has fully transitioned its focus away from carbon offsets toward decarbonization of our operations, focusing our efforts on investing in sustainable aviation fuel, renewing our fleet for more fuel-efficient aircraft and implementing operational efficiencies,” spokesperson for the airline, Grant Myatt told CNBC.
We’re curious to see how this plays out, if at all. Lawsuits such as this tend to be settled out of court with the defendant not needing to claim any fault. We have to wonder how this will shake up the world of carbon offset sales as carbon emissions become a more urgent global discussion.
[Image – Delta]
