AMSTERDAM: The Dutch advertising watchdog has ruled that a KLM promotion telling customers they could fly carbon-emission free is misleading.

       The ad’s tag line, Be a hero, fly CO2 zero, is an absolute claim, the Dutch Advertising Code Committee said in a verdict seen by Bloomberg. As such, the company has the burden of proving the statement and didn’t meet that test, the committee said.

       A spokesman for the airline, the Dutch arm of Air France-KLM, declined to comment.

       While the ruling is limited to only one carrier, it touches on broader pressure on airlines to lower their carbon footprint and ‘flight-shaming’ campaigns to get people to stopping flying. Commercially viable alternatives like electric and hydrogen powered jetliners are at least a decade away so carriers are relying on measures like carbon offsetting to reduce impact.

       Airlines are now buying carbon offsets, or offering customers the option pay extra for them, to convince travellers that, on a net basis, their trips won’t contribute to global warming. These programmes, which include tree planting and forest protection, have been criticized as insufficient, misleading or impossible to validate. A similar debate swirls around so-called sustainable aviation fuel, an element in airlines’ CO2-reduction plans.

       Deutsche Lufthansa AG has been touting a “fly CO2 neutral” programme, which it says “enables passengers to keep an eye on their travel activities and to compensate for the CO2 emissions inevitably caused by their flight.” EasyJet Plc says it has been offsetting carbon emissions from fuel used on all flights across its network since November 2019.

       KLM buys Golden Standard certified carbon credits for a reforestation project in Panama, and offers customers options to fly CO2 neutral at added cost. The scheme results in a certain “level of offsetting” of emissions but is not “adequate” to claim absolute carbon neutrality, the watchdog said.

       The case was brought by an individual under The Stichting Reclame Code, a self-regulatory system for advertisers in the Netherlands that also has consumer representation. KLM has two weeks to decide whether it wants to appeal. — Bloomberg