British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have been accused of misleading passengers within the industry about their environmental claims.
According to The Guardian, Possible, a climate charity, and Leigh Day, a law firm, have filed a formal complaint against the airlines over their promotional claims about reducing emissions.
This follows recently revealed research by the Royal Society, which found that renewable energy production would have to be doubled, or at least half of the UK’s agricultural produce would have to go towards SAF production. Possible argued that the UK did not have enough land to grow enough resources for SAF production.
“For fuels derived from biomass, land is not available to produce crops in sufficient quantities to power aviation without causing hugely damaging deforestation, which increase emissions and makes biofuels just as bad for the climate as kerosene, if not worse,” a Possible spokesperson told The Guardian.
Furthermore, the research highlighted the emissions produced during the production of SAF, which the airlines misrepresented.
“The reality is that technologies for cleaner flights either don’t work or don’t even exist yet. We think that airlines’ misleading claims about their emissions are unfair to people who want to do the right thing when they travel. It’s time for airlines to start being honest about their sky-high emissions,” said Possible’s Senior Campaigner, Alethea Warrington.
BA responded by saying it had a clear plan of initiatives to reach its nett-zero goals over the short, medium and long term.
Similarly, Virgin outlined its plan to achieve nett-zero by 2050, including its intention to use 10% of SAF on all its flights by the next decade.
However, Possible criticised its deadline, citing the airline’s report that it had fallen short of its emission targets for the year.
