Carbon Offsetting

Did do some searching but couldn't find any other real discussion on this other than the APD thread.

Just wondering how many of us are offsetting our flight emissions. I figured I'd take a look on this website, and was quite surprised at the affordable nature of this.

Maybe V-Flyer should have a recognised company with a link?

Phil FM

P.S. I was also under the impression that carbon offsetting was all about planting trees and was pleasantly surprised at the range of schemes that the payments support.

VV good point. I do with BA, but have not worked out how to do so with VS. Carbon offset may not be the ideal solution, but at least is it an effort to make a difference.

[HighFlyer]

Can someone explain this in layman's terms for this idiot please?

My flight to SFO next week would be costing me £18.53 in my already deep carbon foorprint. So, what, am i supposed to give this money to WorldPay and sleep easier at night? Or do i get a delivery of lovely trees to plant for my dues?

Thanks,
Sarah

[RichardMannion]

Surely the £80 APD I now pay per flight is assisting with this?

Thanks,
Richard

Considering I am about to board an Air Canada flight to -3 degree weather then I for one think that my carbon emissions are playing a vital role in making Canada into a tropical climate. If anything I should receive some cash. Im just happy to play my part.

On a serious note though I also thought that the APD (for those that get charged it) was going towards this...........ah to be young and naive (okay so Im not young).

Surely the situation is that if we stopped Southa America from logging for a day and China's emissions for a day that would offset all airline immisions until 2012.
Think what Carbon offsetting we could do if we permanently stopped the logging..

Yes alan, all you say it true. However, when you have two people behaving badly then it spirals downwards until someone does something unacceptable. Somebody has to give in first.

I have to say that I do take a pragmatic approach to this.
One day the big yellow thing in the sky will go supernova and well, carbon emissions will be the last thing on anybodys mind [:o)][:o)]

Idiotic anchor-man on channel 4 news yesterday tried to persuade some govt minister that they shouldn't be approving airport expansion and new runways etc. When will people get it into their heads that aviation is not the biggest and certainly not the only cause of carbon emissions. Also, if new runways are built, a/c won't be forced to hold for an hour before landing and the same for pre-TO taxiing, thereby significantly reducing emissions, rather than increasing them!

[:0][:0][:0]

[mitchja]

Paying APD is more than enough thankyou very much, so I'm not offsetting anything else.

Anyway, I will be doing my bit as I'm just about to switch from a high CO2 producing petrol engine car (~190g/Km) to a much lower CO2 producing HDI diesel engine car (~120g/Km).

OK the actual reason I've done this is not purley from an environmental point of view, I've done it as I'll be paying less road tax [:I]

Regards

Not quite sure whether to take some of the above comments seriously or not - I guess I'm still trying to work out my own stance on the subject.

In Layman's terms, Sarah, the point is that a seat on an aircraft from A to B has an environmental cost measured in tons of CO2 (although it takes into account non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions). What Carbon Offsetting attempts to do is make an investment in renewable energy sources which will neutralise this. Alan is not too far off when he talks about stopping logging or China's emissions for a day - that in effect is what offsetting is trying to achieve. As a simple example:

Return LHR-JFK = 1.54 tons of CO2 = 11.55GBP

Buying 11.55GPB worth of energy efficient light bulbs will reduce the need for 1.54 tons of CO2 to be created.

As the carbon impact of electricity depends on two things, how it is generated and how much is used, most of these schemes invest in economies where coal and oil based electricity generation makes the neutralising cheaper - You'd have to buy three times that number in the UK to neutralise the same amount of carbon.

I'm normally pretty cynical about these kinds of things but it does seem to be becoming popular and there are at least a few reputable companies out there. It would be wonderful to think that government would get behind this and invest the APD into offsetting but we all know that ain't gonna happen so I guess it's just a personal decision we need to ask ourselves based on our own personal feelings on the subject and whether we can afford it.

I agree with VS045 that air travel is not the only or biggest cause of CO2 emissions - but this is an airline forum so obviously this thread is raised from that angle. However the linked site above allows you to offset all types of emissions - home, car etc. and I do not suspect that anyone here is going to deny that air travel is a contributor. While C02 offsetting is only one possible way to reduce emissions it is the only real way (after abstinence) for individuals to make a difference.

I will certainly be reading a bit up a bit more and take the whole situation a little more seriously. It is very easy to be flippant and point to taxes etc. but the ultimate democracy is about everyone deciding to do something not being told to do it.

Phil FM

[preiffer]

So where's the statement from the government that 100% of the increase in APD is funding this initiative?

When Mr. Brown coughs up, so will I.

Until that point, if they continue to badge these taxes as "environmental impact reduction" or whatever the current phrase is, I shall assume I'm already funding such schemes.

Kill all cows, get rid of the major source of CO2 emissions (and milk, and meat and leather and...)

Sure when I was at primary school, 1970s thousands of reputable scientists were warning of the coming ice age, much faster than anticipated.

1980's it was acid rain

1990's ozone holes, where are they now?

The offsetting thing has been going on for some time in my business, every coffin sold by suppliers a tree is planted, they been doing it for ages, thats a lot of trees.

'05 it was bird flu, '06 was CO2 and now we're back to bird flu again[ii]

Aren't cows methane? But that has the same effect as CO2.

VS.

Originally posted by VS045
'05 it was bird flu, '06 was CO2 and now we're back to bird flu again[ii]

Aren't cows methane? But that has the same effect as CO2.

VS.

yes, too much Sat evening wine! [:o)]

I am not sure bird flue and CO2 are mutually exclusive issues. I will however have a word with the cows and see if they will stop farting.

[mitchja]

Just done a few calcs here in relation to driving to put things in perspective a bit:

I do approx 13000 miles p.a. (20,930Km p.a. where 1mile = 1.61Km)

My current car produces 191g CO2/Km, therefore, in 1 year my car produces 3997630g (or 3997.63Kg or ~4 metric tonnes) CO2 per year. That's a 2.0 litre GTI petrol engine.

My new car will produce 120g CO2/Km so that means I will only produce 2511600g (or 2511.6Kg or ~2.5 metric tonnes) CO2 per year. Engine will be a 1.6 HDI diesel.

Therefore I will be producing 1.5 tonnes less CO2 per year from now on which is the same amount 1 return flight to DXB produces. When I fly to DXB at New Year I'll be happy that I have offset that flight plus I'll also be saving ~£90 a year on road tax [y]

Regards

[HighFlyer]

I daren't even calculate mine. Seeing as i live quite far away from my office and clock up 120 miles a day round trip, and fly somewhere every month or two, and have a large house that is heated twice daily, i think i had better start investing in that small forest.

Thanks,
Sarah

Good to see a few people burying there heads in the sand on this one (yet again)

'I've paid APD so don't need to do anything else'

'Lets see what the government does with the extra money they are getting from me'

Such short sightedness....

Presumably those same people will be the ones asking what the government will do to cure the skin cancer they may get in the future. Don't worry about it though, it'll probably be the next generation who starts to really suffer - you'll be OK

Take responsibility for your own actions and minimise the impact wherever possible

Bottom line is anything you do to offset is a good thing!

Jon B

[preiffer]

Jon, don't misunderstand my point.

I'm MORE than happy to take responsibility for my own actions and/or clean up after myself.

What makes me spit teeth though, is the pathetic facade that the government insist on keeping around all these "environmental taxes".

WHERE is all the money going? It's certainly not towards carbon offsetting or planting forests - instead, it's funding arms & further borrowing.

Originally posted by preiffer
Jon, don't misunderstand my point.

I'm MORE than happy to take responsibility for my own actions and/or clean up after myself.

What makes me spit teeth though, is the pathetic facade that the government insist on keeping around all these "environmental taxes".

WHERE is all the money going? It's certainly not towards carbon offsetting or planting forests - instead, it's funding arms & further borrowing.

Very true and well put. It may have seemed like it, but I'm not having a particular dig at anyone on this forum. I believe the government SHOULD declare this money and be held accountable as to where it actually goes.

My main point is that the truly sad fact of all this is that we will one day be forced to change the way we live - like it or not.... an even sadder fact is that it will be future generations who will pay the price for the way we (me included) live today.

Offsetting is certainly not a cure all, but it does go some way to slowing down the impact and as such everyone should do what they can to support it, if that means paying an extra £20 on top of your next flight then do it.

Jon B

Originally posted by preiffer
What makes me spit teeth though, is the pathetic facade that the government insist on keeping around all these "environmental taxes".

WHERE is all the money going? It's certainly not towards carbon offsetting or planting forests - instead, it's funding arms & further borrowing.

Totally agree with you there preiffer - I think it bugs everyone to see the government increasing taxation under the cover of being green. However the point here is that having accepted the fact that the government is taking money under false pretences do we play along and say we've paid our dues (even though we know it has actually been stolen) or do we try to correct the balance.

James - congratulations on the more economical car but this just means that in total there is less to offset - nobody has an 'allowance' of pollution which can be allocated to different uses and offset against each other.

Sarah, I'm in your camp - I do 80 miles a day but amazingly it does not add up to that much per year in offsets.

Jon, nice to hear one voice on the side of reason - actually Sailor is pretty positive too. Unfortunately until we have a cure for flatulent cows maybe we at least have to start thinking about how we can begin to make a difference.

Phil FM

We try pretty hard. Put 8" of insulation in the loft, Insulated the walls that are not 3'thick of cob, buy carbon offset coal and electricity, recycle/compost/worm-farm a good proportion of our rubbish (Although the packaging drives me nuts), Use hippo bags, changed the central heating to a pumped system with zoning and fitted TRV's (If you don't know what the last one is, PM me and I would be happy to quote for fitting;)), all our human waste we deal with rather than putting it into the sewage system, collect rain and bath water (for the garden), low energy bulbs, changed the car from a 2.8l to a 600cc. Could do better on oil usage, but have not found something that gets anywhere near making that green, and there are few practical/economic alternatives for us.

The interesting thing is that the money I saved moving to a smaller car paid for all the changes many, many times over. And the new car has better performance!

So yeh, the government is turning us over, but still we should still try and do out bit shouldn't we?

[HighFlyer]

Jeremy, I don't believe you really have a worm farm!

Thanks,
Sarah