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ECOCLUB, Issue 92
A quick search online between competing offsetting companies reveals huge differences in calculating offsetting
prices for the same routes using the omni-present & handy online CO2 calculators. Is this due to lack of meaningful data
on plane capacities, engine consumption, and occupancy rates, or due to fraud?
Calculating your emissions from your seat on the plane is not a precise science. There are far too many variables involved, and
for this reason, Climate Care commissioned a report from the Environmental Change Institute (ECI) at Oxford University, to
find a way to calculate them and explain it for the benefit of our customers. This report is available on our website.
The reasons for variations are numerous - different planes, seat configurations, freight, different fuel use etc. There's also what's
referred to as radiative forcing. When you burn a fossil fuel at ground level with normal atmospheric conditions, you can
calculate the CO2 emissions simply by taking the carbon content of the fuel and multiplying it by a figure, which is the weight
of Carbon Dioxide which will be emitted when the carbon meets the oxygen in the atmosphere when it's burnt.
However, things become more complicated once you get into the upper atmosphere, because the air is thinner and you have the
added complication of contrails and vapour trails (water vapour is a greenhouse gas) etc. We know that the global warming
impact of these other factors is greater than the emissions from simply burning fuel at ground level, but we don't know precisely
how much greater an impact it has.
The ECI looked all the studies available and decided that a factor of two was the most credible, so at Climate Care we use EU
published average fuel burn figures, for average air craft and for the landing and take off just take the fuel burn emissions
figures, but for the part of the flight in the upper atmosphere we multiply the fuel burn figures by two to take into account the
radiative forcing. As I said, it's an imprecise science, but we feel that as long as we are transparent about how we have come by
these figures, and these can be backed up scientifically through the ECI report, we are offering our customers the best we can.
Looking at the supply side of the travel industry, is there interest in large travel corporations? In tourism
officialdom? And are small outfits less or more interested in carbon-offsetting?
In the beginning it was the smaller specialist companies that partnered with Climate Care, but the issue certainly moved into the
mainstream when British Airways partnered with us last year and we produced an emissions calculator for their customers to
offset their emissions.
With our launch with lastminute.com back in November, where, when UK customers are booking their flight the offset is
incorporated into the booking process and you can't proceed without deciding whether or not you'll offset, we're really making
progress. Lastminute has had a ten percent uptake since the introduction of the scheme.
We're also working with First Choice on a customer offering.
With the prominence of the issues in the media now, one of our smaller specialist companies has seen an increase from 20%
uptake at the beginning of 2006 to over 40% in the fourth quarter of the year.
Do you find there is adequate demand from air-travellers to support all carbon-offsetting schemes? Estimates talk
about just 1 in 10 holidaymaker offsetting their flights carbon, have you noticed an increase, or is this percentage more
or less stagnant?
Absolutely, I think the demand from customers to offset is growing. I don't know if your one in ten figure comes from the
lastminute.com post launch press release about uptake, but, as I explained above, where the option is there for people to offset,
they're taking it. A recent poll by Amadeus one of the Global Distribution Systems (GDS) providers said that 25.6% of leisure
and 26.5% of business travel agents are fielding increasing questions on the environmental impact of their trip. 12.5% of leisure
and 14.3% of business travel businesses are now offering their customers the option to offset their carbon emissions. Our web
sales over the last year have increased threefold.
New travel carbon-offsetting schemes seem to be popping up every other day, particularly online. In the UK, which is
way ahead in this sector, and as you hinted earlier in our conversation, the environment secretary recently announced
that only offset schemes using officially recognised carbon credits will be awarded a new government stamp of approval.
The officially recognised credits, known as certified emission reductions (CERs) are twice as expensive as the
unregulated alternatives, the voluntary emission reductions (VERs). Notably only four companies met the government's
approval and surprisingly your own was not one of them, although you had been recommended by travel authorities in
the past. Do you believe there is a need for government regulation, or does it create a monopoly / oligopoly with the
potential for corruption?
At Climate Care, we're very much aware of the need for independent standards and verification of the emissions reductions and
additional sustainable development benefits being offered by offset projects, and we're behind the UK government's consultation
on this, but the whole thing has been misrepresented in the press. The government has only just launched the consultation on
