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Qantas is facing accusations it has misled customers by charging them extra to fly carbon-neutral and promoting itself as sustainable despite not having a credible plan to reduce its output of planet-heating pollution.
Environmental advocacy group Climate Integrity has asked the consumer watchdog to investigate the airline and urged it to follow a recent European Union crack down on airlines engaged in “greenwashing”.
Qantas is under fire over its sustainability claims. Credit: Brook Mitchell
A detailed complaint compiled by the Environmental Defenders Office and sent to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission targets Qantas’ claims that it is on track for “net zero emissions by 2050” and that customers can balance out the environmental impact of flying.
Climate Integrity director Claire Snyder said Qantas gave “a false impression of how sustainable flying is”, when in reality it was highly polluting and the industry had no clear path to decarbonising.
“Consumers are increasingly considering climate and sustainability in their decisions. If you don’t have clear information about what the impacts are, consumers can’t make informed decisions,” she said. “Exaggerating environmental credentials gives a false sense of progress at this very urgent time for deep emissions reductions”.
Qantas produced 17.6 million tonnes of CO2 emissions from its global operations in 2024, which is the equivalent of 4 per cent of Australia’s total annual emissions. Aviation produces around 2 per cent of the world’s emissions and faces a difficult task reducing them given its reliance on fossil fuels.
Qantas and budget arm Jetstar tell customers they can “fly carbon-neutral” by paying a fee ($5.60 for a Sydney-Melbourne return flight) which funds bushfire prevention, rainforest conservation and other environmental projects which “remove, reduce or avoid” carbon emissions.
But Snyder said it was false to equate carbon sequestered temporarily in land-based environmental projects with the carbon released permanently into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels.
“Contributing a few dollars to conversation is a great thing to do, but it’s incorrect to think that somehow compensates for or neutralises the impact of your flight,” she said.