Description
The EU Commission, the executive body of the European Union, announced that following a complaint by the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) it has sent letters to 20 (unnamed) airlines identifying various misleading green claims and giving them 30 days to bring their practices in line with EU consumer law. The Commission scrutinizes airline claims that flight emissions can be offset by climate projects or through the use of sustainable fuels and the practice of selling these offsets to passengers for an additional fee opaquely calculated by online tools. Those of us who have long criticized CO2 offsets sold to passengers as absolution papers and pseudo-green capitalist non-solutions, this sounds like poetry. However, it is highly unlikely that the airlines will stop these revenue-generating practices. The EU action is essentially a request for scientific-sounding documentation and more transparency rather than a radical criticism of the underlying politics of CO2 offsets in general, so there is a danger of this EU action making offsets more credible and marketable.