Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Yet more evidence support for climate action collapses the moment even trivial sums of money are on the table.

Climate change: Half world’s biggest airlines don’t offer carbon offsetting

By Dulcie Lee & Laura Foster 10 May 2019

Less than half of the world’s major airlines are giving passengers the opportunity to offset the carbon dioxide produced from their flights, BBC research found.

When airlines do offer such a scheme, generally fewer than 1% of flyers are choosing to spend more.

Carbon offsetting enables passengers to balance out their carbon footprint by paying towards environmental projects.

Aviation accounts for 2% of global human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.

Prices vary but a return flight from London to Malaga, Spain, would cost around £4 to offset.

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The BBC contacted the world’s biggest airlines in terms of numbers of flights and numbers of passengers.

Out of the 28 approached, less than half offered a carbon offset scheme and the majority declined to provide data on the number of passengers offsetting their flights during a one year period – often saying their figures were too low to report.

Michael Gill, a director from the international aviation trade body Iata, said: “We strongly recommend all passengers to use high-quality projects to offset their own CO2 emissions as an individual contribution to addressing climate change.”

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