(Bloomberg) -- Large airlines such as Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and Ryanair mainly rely on false and ineffective solutions to cut emissions, casting doubts over their commitment to slow climate change, a new report found. 

Europe’s seven-largest airline groups would need to reduce at least 2% of flights annually by 2040 to cut their greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, according to a report by Observatorio RSC commissioned by Greenpeace. But the companies analyzed have not made goals to cut annual emissions, promised to reduce flights or pledged to fully decarbonize by 2040. 

“European airlines are putting up a smokescreen of false solutions that sound great, but in effect keep transport hooked on oil,” said Herwig Schuster,  spokesperson for Greenpeace’s European Mobility For All campaign. “Even in the face of a climate emergency, airlines carry on polluting the air and hide their dirty business behind a wall of greenwashing.”

The study focused mainly on airlines’ environmental performance from 2018 to 2020 — before the industry was hit by the global pandemic. However, the researchers also looked at whether bailout and stimulus funds distributed during the crisis encouraged any more sustainable business practices.   

Aviation was Europe’s second-largest contributor of transport emissions in 2017 and was one of the fastest growing sources of carbon pollution before the pandemic. In 2019, the airlines analyzed in the report were responsible for emissions equivalent to the annual carbon footprint of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland combined, according to Greenpeace. While the coronavirus pandemic grounded flights and brought the sector to a halt, activity is picking up again. 

Researchers analyzed commitments by Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, IAG, Ryanair, easyJet, SAS and TAP Air Portugal on several environmental, social and governance fronts. Using publicly available information, they ranked them and gave them scores.

On climate change, researchers looked at indicators including greenhouse gas emissions and targets, environmental policies and reporting of direct and indirect emissions, also known as Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. On average, they scored 32.02 points out of 100 and none ranked above 50. 

Spokespeople for Lufthansa, SAS and TAP Air Portugal did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An easyJet spokesperson said the company reduced emissions per passenger per kilometer by one third since 2000 and aims to improve its carbon efficiency by 35% by 2035, in addition to reducing total emissions. 

All the airlines analyzed have set net zero goals for 2050, but only SAS has an absolute short-term greenhouse gas emissions reduction target — a 25% reduction of CO₂ emissions by 2025 compared with 2005 emissions.  While the groups have embraced the decarbonization discourse, it’s “under their own rules, according to their own deadlines and only to the extent that they can make this process functional to their interests,” authors Eduardo Sanchez and Eduardo Soria at Observatorio RSC wrote in the report. 

The need for environmental action is fully accepted by the industry, as shown by the airline industry’s commitment to achieving net zero in 2050, a spokesperson for the International Air Transportation Association said in an emailed answer to questions. The sector is focusing on abating as much CO₂ as possible from solutions such as sustainable aviation fuels, new aircraft technology, more efficiency and new technology, the organization said.

Between 2018 and 2021, Ryanair claimed to be “the greenest, cleanest airline in Europe,” citing a report from 2011. In February 2020, the UK Advertising Standards Authority banned a Ryanair advertising campaign saying it was Europe’s “lowest emissions airline” and concluded that the claims were misleading. 

Ryanair is the top ESG-rated airline in Europe according to Morningstar’s Sustainanalytics, a Ryanair spokesperson said in an email. The company has an “ambitious” decarbonization strategy in place, which includes a $22 billion investment in a new, more fuel-efficient fleet and funding research into sustainable fuels, the person said. 

While airlines are taking some measures to reduce emissions, including modernizing their fleet or funding research, these contributions are not always significant, Observatorio RSC  researchers wrote in their report. That is usually the case with the use of sustainable aviation fuels. Air France-KLM’s use of this cleaner fuel amounted to just 0.005% of total fuel consumption in 2018 and 0.08% in 2019, according to the company’s sustainability report, cited by the researchers. 

Air France-KLM started testing cleaner fuels as early as 2009, a company spokesperson said in an emailed answer to questions. The company complies with French regulation that forces flights departing from France to incorporate 1% of sustainable aviation fuels from January 2022. The company aims to reach at least a 10% incorporation rate by 2030, the company said, noting that low supply of cleaner aviation fuel remains the main hurdle for its use.  

With the right policy, sustainable aviation fuels could represent up to 65% of the abatement needed to reach net zero, the IATA  said. The organization estimates that with the right support, more than 5 billion liters of this cleaner fuel could be produced by 2025, from 100 million liters last year.

Also in the Observatorio RSC report, researchers found the impact of offsetting programs is probably exaggerated. Information on the calculation methods used to determine the offset is limited and in some cases airlines seem to have little control over projects at source. 

Following coronavirus lockdowns across Europe, airlines received a total of 31.18 billion euros in the form of direct transfers from governments, recapitalization or loans between March 2020 and November 2021. But only two out of 20 bailout measures had specific environmental or climate change conditions. Even in those two cases, which affected Austrian Airlines and Air France, it was not clear that the conditions were binding, according to a Greenpeace and Transport & Environment report cited by researchers. 

“Much of the government support practically gives the airlines a blank cheque on social and environmental issues,” report authors wrote. “The low level of conditionality suggests that the transition to a more sustainable business model is still largely linked to voluntary initiatives with uncertain results.” 

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.