"Air travel is currently not sustainable." Not a quotation from an environmental campaigner, but the opening sentence of the sustainability section of KLM's website.
The Dutch flag carrier changed its website to include this statement and dropped its Fly Responsibly marketing campaign a few months after being taken to court in summer 2022 by Fossielvrij NL. The pressure group is suing KLM under the European Union's Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, claiming Fly Responsibly was based on such mitigations as sustainable aviation fuel and offsetting that are insufficient to meet Paris Agreement climate goals and continue to damage the environment.
The case finally will be heard in an Amsterdam court on Dec. 19, with judgment expected six to eight weeks later, but the ripples already are being felt beyond KLM's website. In June 2023, European consumer watchdog association BEUC filed a complaint with the European Commission, alleging 17 airlines have used such terms as "sustainable," "responsible" and "green" deceptively. In November, climate charity Possible lodged formal complaints against British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, alleging consumers are being misled about efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
Meanwhile, the European Commission is working on a Green Claims Directive intended to punish environmental claims, such as carbon neutrality, made without clear, objective and verifiable commitments that are then regularly monitored. In May 2023 the European Parliament voted for a similar directive that also limits the ability to make sustainability claims based on paying for carbon offsets.
As a result of these intensifying legal and regulatory efforts, FossielVrij campaigner Hiske Arts told BTN, "all airlines are on watch. They know they have to be careful what they say and how they present their green activities. It is important that people start to see the solutions the industry has to offer are not going to solve the problem. If emissions are going to reduce, the only feasible solution to do this rapidly is leaving planes on the ground."
Arts, a social and environmental campaigner for nearly 20 years, believes other countries soon will follow an attempt by the Dutch government to reduce movements at Amsterdam Schiphol airport. Meanwhile, her objectives for 2024 include taking on the investment community as well. Arts will attempt to end the designation by pension funds and banks of new aircraft funding as "green" investment simply by virtue of their producing fewer emissions than older ones.