Delta Class Action Says Airline, Despite Claims, Is Not Carbon-Neutral

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A proposed class action alleges Delta’s claim that it is carbon-neutral is “manifestly and provably false” given that the carbon offset market on which the airline bases the boast is wracked with “foundational issues” that prevent any participating company from truly being “carbon-neutral.” 

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The 41-page complaint says Delta’s carbon-neutral claim hinges upon “an underlying set of representations” that the airline has somehow entirely offset carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from its global operations such that the company has not been responsible for releasing additional carbon into the atmosphere since March 2020. 

Despite calling itself “the world’s first carbon-neutral airline,” a claim rooted in Delta’s participation in the voluntary carbon offset market, scientists and government regulators have called out the airline specifically as one of many companies that have “grossly misstated the actual carbon reduction produced by their carbon offset portfolio,” the lawsuit states. 

At the same time, the suit says, Delta’s commercial airline operations have caused significant amounts of CO2 to be released into the atmosphere. 

“Accordingly, Defendant’s claims of ‘carbon neutrality’ are false and misleading,” the case charges. “[T]he operation of Defendant’s airline is not carbon neutral, and consumers would not have purchased tickets on Defendant’s flights, or paid substantially less for them, had they known the claim of carbon neutrality was false.”

The filing explains that the voluntary carbon offset market is a “loose arrangement” of companies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that facilitate investment in eco-conscious “green” projects, including renewable energy and the prevention of deforestation. The suit says that in exchange for their investment in these projects, companies receive “carbon offsets”—credits that purportedly verify “the amount of carbon that was not released” due to the company’s contribution in the offset market. 

However, the carbon neutral market is beset by “foundational issues,” including a lack of verifiability, additionality, immediacy, durability and transparency, such that the purchase of offset credits cannot make a company “carbon neutral,” the case says. 

“Even the primary offset vendors offer offsets replete with the following: 

a. inaccurate accounting; 

b. 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; 

c. non-immediate speculative emissions reductions that will at best occur over decades, despite crediting purchasers with the sum of those projected offsets; and 

d. impermanent projects subject to disease, natural disasters, and human intervention. 

These issues are specific to offsets purchased by and relied upon by Defendant.” 

Delta’s false carbon-neutral claim has harmed consumers financially in that proposed class members have paid a premium for Delta flights due to their belief that flying with the airline meant “more ecologically conscious” air travel and participation in a global transition away from carbon emissions, the complaint claims. 

Since March 2020, when it first began to tout itself as fully committed to going carbon neutral, Delta has produced “massive amounts” of CO2, and the airline’s reliance on its participation in the carbon offset market does not mean that its prominent, cross-medium carbon-neutral claims are not false and misleading, the filing says. 

“These representations were clearly made with the intent to encourage air travel on Delta,” the suit claims. 

The lawsuit looks to cover all persons who, between March 6, 2020 and the present, bought a Delta Airlines flight while located in California. 

A Delta spokesperson told Law360 that the suit detailed here is “without legal merit,” and that the airline has since March 31 of last year “fully transitioned its focus away from carbon offsets toward decarbonization of our operations, focusing our efforts on investing in sustainable aviation fuel, renewing our fleet for more fuel-efficient aircraft and implementing operational efficiencies.” 

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