ByAFP
October 21, 2025
Total rebranded to TotalEnergies in 2021 to emphasise its diversification into wind turbines and solar panels - Copyright AFP Kazuhiro NOGI
Nathalie ALONSO
A Paris court is due to hand down a ruling Thursday whether French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies misled consumers with claims overstating its climate pledges, a case that could help shape greenwashing jurisprudence in Europe and beyond.
It is the first such case in France targeting a major energy company and could set a legal precedent for corporate environmental advertising, which is starting to face tighter regulations in the European Union.
The civil case stems from a March 2022 lawsuit by three environmental groups accusing TotalEnergies of “misleading commercial practices” for ads saying it could reach carbon neutrality while continuing oil and gas production.
The plaintiffs took that legal route as “greenwashing” — or the act of claiming to be more environmentally responsible than in reality — is not specifically covered under French law.
Starting in May 2021, TotalEnergies advertised its goal of “net zero by 2050, together with society” and touted gas as “the fossil fuel with the lowest greenhouse gas emissions”.
At the time, the company had changed its name from Total to TotalEnergies to emphasise its investments in wind turbines and solar panels for electricity production.
“It’s misleading, there is a big gap between reality and their activities which are still mostly based on fossil fuels… and their advertising which focuses on carbon neutrality and promoting gas and biofuels as clean energy,” said Juliette Renaud from the French chapter of Friends of the Earth activist group.
The lawsuit targeted around 40 “false advertisements”, some of which are still being used, according to climate groups.
It requested the court order their use be halted and TotalEnergy be required to put disclaimers on its ads that include warnings about the impact of fossil fuels on the climate.
– Possible precedent –
“For the average consumer, it is impossible to understand that TotalEnergies is actually expanding fossil fuel production,” Clementine Baldon, a lawyer for the NGOs, said at a hearing in June.
TotalEnergies maintains it has not engaged in misleading commercial practices and that it is “simplistic” to immediately stop using fossil fuels.
TotalEnergies also insisted that the messages are part of its institutional communications regulated by financial authorities and not consumer law.
It argued that the ads did not target consumers but its stakeholders such as investors and clients.
The affair was an exploitation “of consumer protection laws to criticise the strategy of the group”, TotalEnergies told AFP.
Companies have talked about their environmental commitments in ads for years, often resorting to vague terms such as “green” and “sustainable”.
But the legal terrain surrounding such claims is beginning to emerge.
In Europe, courts ruled against Dutch airline KLM in 2024 and Germany’s Lufthansa in March for misleading consumers about their efforts to reduce the environmental impact of flying.
A ruling against TotalEnergies “would put the oil and gas industry on notice that claiming to be aiming for net zero by 2050 when expanding fossil fuel production, or promoting gas as a climate solution, is misleading,” said Johnny White, a lawyer with ClientEarth.
“The case will set the precedent for oil and gas industry advertising narratives in EU consumer protection law” and even elsewhere as such laws are generally very similar, he added.
But legal rulings have not always gone against energy companies that are making environmental claims.
In Spain in February, utility Iberdrola Energia lost a case it had brought against Spanish oil and gas company Repsol over similar environmental claims.
European airlines drop vague promises on carbon offsets
By AFP
October 21, 2025
NGOs argue that airlines should have emission warnings on ads, like the health warnings for tobacco and alcohol - Copyright AFP/File BAY ISMOYO
Tangi QUEMENER
European airlines are starting to become prudent when promoting flight carbon-offset measures, such as reforestation, following courtroom losses and stepped-up pressure by regulators.
Dutch airline KLM in March last year lost a case about greenwashing — a practice in which companies are regarded as claiming to be more environmentally responsible than they really are.
An Amsterdam court ruled it misled consumers with “vague and general” adverts about efforts to reduce the environmental impact of flying, including painting “an overly rosy picture” about the impact of measures such as adopting sustainable aviation fuel.
In March, a German court banned airline giant Lufthansa from saying in its advertisements that passengers could “compensate” for carbon emissions from flights, finding that the claims were “misleading”.
Lufthansa had already received a red card from British regulators over its ads in 2023, as well as from Belgian regulators in prior years.
In 2023, the European consumer rights umbrella group BEUC filed a complaint with the European Commission, accusing European airlines of greenwashing and unfair commercial practices for inflating their green credentials.
A year later, the commission opened a probe, which is still ongoing, into 20 firms over misleading green claims.
BEUC said earlier this year that some airlines have since removed or changed their climate-related marketing claims.
For example, Norwegian Air Shuttle dropped climate claims from its reservation process, while Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air stopped offering passengers the possibility of offsetting their CO2 emissions.
“However, these improvements should not hide that greenwashing is still widespread,” said BEUC’s director general, Agustin Reyna.
– Room for improvement –
“There is room to change” in airlines’ communications, said Diane Vitry, who heads up the aviation section of the NGO Transport & Environment.
She said the ideal would be that ads for flights mention the climate impact they have, similar to the health warnings included on tobacco and alcohol labels.
“I haven’t seen a big improvement” from transport companies, said Garance Bazin, an environment researcher who co-authored a Greenpeace report criticising overt greenwashing in airline ads.
She noted, however, that “legal precedents are ‘starting’ to take hold” and companies were “making less bold statements about certain things that are objectively false”.
Airlines were “likely paying more attention” to their public communications, said Laurent Timsit, general delegate at the French aviation sector representative body FNAM.
Air France no longer offers carbon offsets for flights. Instead, it suggests passengers contribute to the purchase of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) which has reduced emissions.
Air transport accounts for three percent of global carbon emissions, but it plays a bigger role in global warming because aircraft produce other greenhouse gases and contrails.
– Net zero goal –
The sector has pledged to reach net zero by 2050 in terms of carbon emissions, mainly through SAF use, but also carbon offsets, despite NGOs criticism of them as ineffective.
Timsit, who noted that NGOs had previously pressed for such offsets to be put into French law, expressed disappointment at the BEUC complaint.
Marie Owens Thomsen, vice president in charge of sustainable development at the International Air Transport Association, said that “clearly, what we want is all the levers that we will need for being able to decarbonise by 2050”.
Noting that SAF was not yet available in sufficient quantities, while offsets provided certifiable emission reductions, she said that it was counterproductive to be “dogmatic about which tool is better than which”.
Carsten Spohr, CEO of Lufthansa, told AFP at a recent conference of the Airlines for Europe lobby group that some of the court cases were going in “an unfortunate direction”.
They were “making it more difficult for us to attract our passengers to spend more in order to help the environment”, he said.
“In our case, now four to five percent of our passengers are willing to pay more to allow us to fly them with sustainable aviation fuels or other ways of compensation,” he said, alluding to his airline’s “green” fares.
“So how can that be bad for the environment to attract attention and visibility?” he asked.
By AFP
October 21, 2025
NGOs argue that airlines should have emission warnings on ads, like the health warnings for tobacco and alcohol - Copyright AFP/File BAY ISMOYO
Tangi QUEMENER
European airlines are starting to become prudent when promoting flight carbon-offset measures, such as reforestation, following courtroom losses and stepped-up pressure by regulators.
Dutch airline KLM in March last year lost a case about greenwashing — a practice in which companies are regarded as claiming to be more environmentally responsible than they really are.
An Amsterdam court ruled it misled consumers with “vague and general” adverts about efforts to reduce the environmental impact of flying, including painting “an overly rosy picture” about the impact of measures such as adopting sustainable aviation fuel.
In March, a German court banned airline giant Lufthansa from saying in its advertisements that passengers could “compensate” for carbon emissions from flights, finding that the claims were “misleading”.
Lufthansa had already received a red card from British regulators over its ads in 2023, as well as from Belgian regulators in prior years.
In 2023, the European consumer rights umbrella group BEUC filed a complaint with the European Commission, accusing European airlines of greenwashing and unfair commercial practices for inflating their green credentials.
A year later, the commission opened a probe, which is still ongoing, into 20 firms over misleading green claims.
BEUC said earlier this year that some airlines have since removed or changed their climate-related marketing claims.
For example, Norwegian Air Shuttle dropped climate claims from its reservation process, while Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air stopped offering passengers the possibility of offsetting their CO2 emissions.
“However, these improvements should not hide that greenwashing is still widespread,” said BEUC’s director general, Agustin Reyna.
– Room for improvement –
“There is room to change” in airlines’ communications, said Diane Vitry, who heads up the aviation section of the NGO Transport & Environment.
She said the ideal would be that ads for flights mention the climate impact they have, similar to the health warnings included on tobacco and alcohol labels.
“I haven’t seen a big improvement” from transport companies, said Garance Bazin, an environment researcher who co-authored a Greenpeace report criticising overt greenwashing in airline ads.
She noted, however, that “legal precedents are ‘starting’ to take hold” and companies were “making less bold statements about certain things that are objectively false”.
Airlines were “likely paying more attention” to their public communications, said Laurent Timsit, general delegate at the French aviation sector representative body FNAM.
Air France no longer offers carbon offsets for flights. Instead, it suggests passengers contribute to the purchase of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) which has reduced emissions.
Air transport accounts for three percent of global carbon emissions, but it plays a bigger role in global warming because aircraft produce other greenhouse gases and contrails.
– Net zero goal –
The sector has pledged to reach net zero by 2050 in terms of carbon emissions, mainly through SAF use, but also carbon offsets, despite NGOs criticism of them as ineffective.
Timsit, who noted that NGOs had previously pressed for such offsets to be put into French law, expressed disappointment at the BEUC complaint.
Marie Owens Thomsen, vice president in charge of sustainable development at the International Air Transport Association, said that “clearly, what we want is all the levers that we will need for being able to decarbonise by 2050”.
Noting that SAF was not yet available in sufficient quantities, while offsets provided certifiable emission reductions, she said that it was counterproductive to be “dogmatic about which tool is better than which”.
Carsten Spohr, CEO of Lufthansa, told AFP at a recent conference of the Airlines for Europe lobby group that some of the court cases were going in “an unfortunate direction”.
They were “making it more difficult for us to attract our passengers to spend more in order to help the environment”, he said.
“In our case, now four to five percent of our passengers are willing to pay more to allow us to fly them with sustainable aviation fuels or other ways of compensation,” he said, alluding to his airline’s “green” fares.
“So how can that be bad for the environment to attract attention and visibility?” he asked.
No comments:
Post a Comment