Wednesday, 4th June, Dublin – A Chapter Zero Ireland event this Friday, 6th June titled “Cleared for Clarity: Rethinking Aviation, Transport, and Sustainability”, is being called out by the Children’s Rights Over Flights (CROF) campaign as an exercise in greenwashing and blatant hypocrisy. The event is being co-hosted by the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) and scheduled speakers include a Ryanair director. CROF point to the DAA’s and Ryanair’s high-profile campaign to massively increase flight traffic from Dublin Airport by lifting the passenger cap. This would lead to huge increases in aviation fossil fuel pollution. The campaigners highlight that, as the climate emergency and associated harms facing children worsen, the DAA’s application, if successful, would cause related emissions to increase by 22% by 2031, which the group says would be unforgivable.
CROF spokesperson Louise O’Leary, a mother of one from Dublin, said, “We’re learning every week of grave and increased risks for our kids and grandkids due to a failure of industries, like aviation, to urgently cut their fossil fuel pollution, and the failure of states to regulate them accordingly. Experts warn that our children will grow up to face malnutrition, food shortages, and exposure to deadly heat. It couldn’t be clearer what climate responsibility means for Irish aviation; It means urgently reducing the record-breaking pollution the sector is causing. Yet instead of doing right by kids, we’ve seen a relentless and irresponsible campaign by the DAA, Ryanair and others for a huge increase in polluting flight traffic via a lifting of the passenger cap. So it’s outrageous and shocking hypocrisy to see them platformed in an event supposedly addressing ‘climate responsibility’.”
Chapter Zero Ireland is a membership organisation of non-executive directors, founded by Ibec, Deloitte Ireland, HSBC Ireland, Chartered Accountants Ireland and the Institute of Directors in Ireland. Notably the event is also being attended by representatives from state bodies CIE Group and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, which is of further concern to the campaigners.
According to the United Nations, “By misleading the public to believe that a company or other entity is doing more to protect the environment than it is, greenwashing promotes false solutions to the climate crisis that distract from and delay concrete and credible action”. As it stands, Dublin Airport generates the same carbon emissions as 1.4 million cars each year, and Ryanair has been identified as the most polluting company in Ireland. Experts advise there is currently no viable sustainable alternative to jet kerosene nor technological solution in existence to meaningfully address aviation’s record levels of pollution. CROF have written to ‘Chapter Zero Ireland’ to highlight their concerns about Friday’s event and the multiple harms facing children due to the climate emergency. Ryanair shareholder and DAA CEO Kenny Jacobs will be giving the keynote address. Mr Jacobs, formerly a Ryanair marketing executive, has recently asserted the semi-state body’s aim of increasing Dublin Airport passenger traffic to 60 million passengers a year.
Dr Lisa McNamee, a committee member of Irish Doctors for the Environment, who have been campaigning for a ban on fossil fuel advertisements and sponsorship, said, “Ever increasing flight pollution levels to fill the wallets of a small number are dooming our children to poorer air quality, less healthy lives and an unstable climate. If the aviation industry needs to greenwash, it is because they already know that continued expansion is not in the best interests of most of the population. They should be seeking to reduce their emissions instead of constantly increasing their pollution levels with more and more flights at the expense of the rest of us.”
CROF are calling for an immediate end to aviation industry greenwashing, highlighting its harmful impact in undermining climate science and confusing the public. They have called on Chapter Zero Ireland not to associate Ryanair and DAA with ‘climate responsibility’, and suggested they instead platform climate and biodiversity experts, youth climate voices and groups like ‘Call Aviation to Action’ – aviation industry experts calling for responsible climate action such as managing global demand. CROF are concerned that non-transformative strategies such as reducing emissions for ground operations only, proposed alternative aviation fuels, or hypothetical technological advances, will be put forth at the event as ‘sustainability’ strategies with scant, if any, emphasis on the predominant and growing harms of increasing flight traffic.
CROF’s Ms O’Leary said “Any greenwashing is unacceptable when we’re already so far behind on the climate action children are counting on. However, seeing the DAA and Ryanair apparently position themselves as appropriate speakers on ‘climate responsibility’ in aviation is staggering, given their narratives about the passenger cap which regularly ignore climate concerns. Children are counting on both state and non-state actors to fulfil their human rights obligations and take action for them for a livable future. Children need responsible and urgent climate action, from aviation, like all industries, and they need it now.”
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Listen to interview with CROF campaigners calling out this greenwashing:
Children's Rights Over Flights 
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