Since March 2020, Delta Air Lines said it will commit $1 billion over the next 10 years to become “the first carbon-neutral airline globally” on its “journey to mitigate all emissions from its global business going forward.” The airline said it is investing in “driving innovation, advancing clean air travel technologies, accelerating the reduction of carbon emissions and waste, and establishing new projects to mitigate the balance of emissions.” Over the last two years, Delta Air Lines says it has been transparent about how it is progressing on that journey.
But a proposed class-action complaint, filed May 30 in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, accuses Delta Airlines of greenwashing. It alleges that “such representations are manifestly and provably false.” The central argument in the complaint is that “foundational issues with the voluntary carbon offset market…cannot make a company carbon neutral.”
Carbon Offsets ‘Misleading’
The voluntary carbon offset market is an initiative that aims to facilitate investment in green projects—such as renewable energy and prevention of deforestation. In exchange for their investment in these projects, companies receive “carbon offset” credits that that are supposed to verify the amount of carbon that was not released due to the company’s investments in the offset market.
However, the complaint argues that even the primary offset vendors offer offsets replete with:
- inaccurate accounting;
- non-additional effects on worldwide carbon levels due to the vendors crediting offsets for projects that would have occurred with or without offset market investment;
- non-immediate speculative emissions reductions that will at best occur over decades, despite crediting purchasers with the sum of those projected offsets; and
- impermanent projects subject to disease, natural disasters, and human intervention.
According to the complaint, such issues are specific to offsets purchased by and relied upon by Delta Air Lines, as well as many other companies, that have “grossly misstated the actual carbon reduction produced by their carbon offset portfolio.”
The complaint, filed on behalf of a California resident and other Delta Air Line customers, alleges that she and other customers “purchased Delta flights at a market premium” due to their belief that by flying Delta they engaged in “more ecologically conscious air travel.”
The lawsuit further called Delta Airlines’ carbon-neutral representations “false and misleading.” The complaint claims that customers would not have purchased Delta Airlines’ services or would have “paid substantially less for those services,” had they known Delta Airline’s carbon neutral representations were false.
The complaint alleges violations of California’s Consumers Legal Remedies Act, California’s False Advertising, Business and Professions Code; and “unlawful, unfair, and fraudulent trade practices” in violation of California’s Business and Professions Code.
As of press time, the judge had not yet approved a jury trial. 
Jaclyn Jaeger is a contributing editor at Compliance Chief 360° and a freelance business writer based in Manchester, New Hampshire.