Why the UK banned Air France, Lufthansa, and Etihad ads over ‘greenwashing’ claims

Subject: Environment

Section: Climate change

In the news:

UK’s ad regulator banned Air France, Lufthansa, and Etihad ads for allegedly misleading consumers on air travel’s environmental impact.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found ads claiming sustainability lacked evidence, violating UK ad code and accused of greenwashing.

Greenwashing:

Greenwashing is when firms or governments give a false impression that all of their products or activities are climate-friendly or help in reducing emissions. Moreover, greenwashing may also occur when a company highlights sustainable aspects of a product to overshadow its environmentally damaging activities.
It can be performed through the use of environmental imagery, misleading labels, and hiding tradeoffs.
Examples like the Volkswagen emissions scandal illustrate this tactic, where a company falsely portrayed its products as environmentally friendly.

Further details of Greenwashing

Aviation Industry Emissions:

Aviation contributes 2.5% of human-produced CO2 emissions, as per the IPCC 2022 estimates, with predictions of increasing to 5% by 2050.
Consideration of non-CO2 emissions like water vapor would attribute nearly 5% of historical global warming to the airline industry.
Domestic flight emissions are attributed to a country’s accounts, but international flight emissions (counted as bunker fuels) have no assigned responsibility to any country.
This lack of accountability raises concerns about controlling these emissions on a global scale.