Climate projects without benefits? Apple continues to “proud” on Apple Watch

Apple reacted to a lawsuit submitted at the end of February in which the company is accused of having made false claims on the climate neutrality of its products. In a statement Compared to the US side Appleinsider the tech company said that it was “proud of its climate-neutral products” and emphasized that they were “the result of industry-leading innovation”. Apple has reduced emissions for the Apple Watch by over 75 percent and invests considerably in natural -based projects to remove hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon from the air.

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The lawsuit was submitted by seven buyers from various US states that accuse Apple of false and misleading claims on climate neutrality (DIB et al v Apple Inc, US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 25-02043). In September 2023, Apple presented its first CO₂-neutral products and explained in its own press release that every Apple Watch Series 9 or SE with aluminum housings in combination with a Sport Loop Loop CO₂-neutral. The same was advertised for the Apple Watch Ultra 2.

The plaintiff: projects do nothing at all

To justify their lawsuit, the plaintiffs state that two projects mentioned by Apple to compensate for carbon dioxide emissions would have taken place even without the manufacturer's intervention or were simply not necessary. Specifically, it is about a forest project called Chyulu Hills in Kenya and the Guinan project in China. The protection against deforestation in Kenya advertised by Apple has already been excluded by the fact that the forest area has been under nature conservation since 1983, it says in the application. In contrast, the Guinan project, which deals with the reforestation, is hardly any space for additional trees, because the area has long been heavily forested, the lawyers claim, citing satellite images.

The plaintiffs represented by law firms from San Francisco, Scottsdale and Houston explain that they would not have bought the clocks or only paid less if they had been known that the compensation projects are said to have no use. It is not the first time that Apple's climate projects are questioned. Even before this lawsuit, consumer advocates from Europe had asked Apple's climate protection advertising, the German surrounding world aid sued and Chinese environmental researchers even spoke of “climate-watering”.

Hope for damages

With their class action, the US plaintiffs and their lawyers hope to receive compensation payments from the responsible US district court in California. Apple should also be prohibited from further describing and promoting the relevant products as CO₂-neutral.