Delta Air Lines hit with proposed class action over carbon neutral claims
Delta Air Lines is ranked No. 1 for best in premium economy, with a score of 848.

A proposed consumer class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges Delta Air Lines made "false and misleading" claims of being the world's first carbon-neutral airline while relying on invalid carbon offsets.

Delta should pay damages to customers for misrepresenting itself as a carbon-neutral airline in marketing campaigns and advertisements that persuaded customers to purchase more expensive tickets they believed had no effect on the environment, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit, filed by California resident Mayanna Berrin in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, said Delta premised its carbon neutrality on the purchase of carbon offsets from the voluntary carbon market, rather than achieving carbon neutrality through sustainable fuels and carbon removals as initially promised.

"Nearly all offsets issued by the voluntary carbon offset market overpromise and underdeliver on their total carbon impact due to endemic methodological errors and fraudulent accounting on behalf of offset vendors," Berrin's attorneys wrote in a complaint.

The voluntary carbon offset market is an arrangement of companies and nongovernmental organizations that facilitate investment in green programs such as anti-deforestation and renewable energy. In exchange for their investment in these projects, companies receive carbon offsets in the form of credits that verify the amount of carbon that wasn't released because of the company's investments in offsets.

Delta has purchased credits from projects including wind and solar projects in India, an Indonesian swamp forest and a Cambodian wildlife sanctuary, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleged the actual operation of the airline is not carbon neutral and customers would not have purchased tickets on those Delta flights — or would have paid substantially less for such tickets — had they known carbon neutrality claims were misleading.

The lawsuit comes three years after Delta announced it would go fully carbon neutral, which means it would cancel out all the greenhouse gas emissions it produces.