tracon

Doesn't start until 2021.
https://atwonline.com/eco-aviation/a...ssions-reports

KathyWdrf

I looked at the first video. It is a short, superficial hit piece that jumps to the conclusion that carbon trading is worthless, without presenting any substantive evidence to support that conclusion. Quoting Naomi Klein is not evidence.

It seems that this forum has devolved into a branch of OMNI/PR.

illico

what calculator is best/accurate used when trying to determine carbon offsets?

for example. I am looking at a Cathay Pacific flight from YYZ-HKG in business and the in-house Cathay calculator comes out at 3.25 tonnes per roundtrip. On atmosfair, the calculator comes out to 9.8 tonnes.

Prospero

I have noticed this too. The atmosfair calculator now factors in an additional CO2 value for “climate impact of contrails, ozone formation, etc.“ and its a hefty add on.

Prospero

I’ve been trying to find out more on the environmental impact of contrails, and ozone formation caused by the flights I’ve taken during 2019. The more I read the less certain I am of the significance. For example, contrail formations can increase atmospheric CO2 levels, but they also have beneficial effects. The pendulum swings wildly depending on atmospheric conditions, is influenced by seasonal effects, and in terms of offset calculations, there is no distinction between day flights and overnight flights.

I sought advice from a work colleague who is our sustainability expert . His advice is, definitely offset the CO2e but don’t bother with the additional figure estimating contrail/ozone formations.

zoned_post_meridiem

That's been my approach as well.

Prospero

That’s also the approach my employer has with regard to offsetting our work related travel.

NauticalWheeler

I am a moderate on climate change but I do what I can. I recycle whenever possible and buy carbon offsets for my electricity usage from my utility provider. It looks like I can offset 10,578 lbs of CO2 this year but I don't know if this is significant in the context of flying.

dickerso

I would encourage you to do it if you can for a moderate price. This is about 5.5 tons. For context, a one way LHR-DXB in business might be 1.5 tons. Guess it depends on how much you fly, but it's likely significant.

NauticalWheeler

​Thank you for your insight. The cost is approximately $120 per year (US dollars). It seems reasonable to me so I am going to keep buying the offsets.

Phantasy

The ultimate goal to offset carbon emission is to undo the AIRF = Aviation Induced Radiative Forcing. Simply said: how much a volume/mass of air will heat up, caused by the (greenhouse) emissions of one or more flights.
Here are more factors that comes into play.

• Carbon / CO2 released in the atmosphere.
  • The impact is heavily dependent on the altitude. CO2 released at 10 km / 6 miles in the air will cause almost a double impact on climate (heating up) than when emitted on the ground.
• Contrails (consisting out of H2O (water), NOx (Nitrogen Oxides), hydrocarbons,...
  • The effects of these 'clouds' are not to be underestimated. Research conclude these have at least the same impact as the carbon emissions.

To compensate the effect of an air flight, which for example emitted 10 tons of CO2 per passenger, about 4x times as much CO2, in this case 40 tons, has to be taken out of the air to undo it's effect on climate.
This is because the only known effective way of doing this is photosynthesis (trees, algae, plants,...), who absorb carbon gas from ground level.

Serious "offsets" take these factors into account.
Places where you can buy offsets with certificate (important!), these are based in Europe but active around the world and available for everyone.

• Atmosfair (Germany)
• Treecological (Belgium)
• Treedom (Italy)
• Treesforall (The Netherlands)

Treedom is very original: they send a picture of the trees they've planted for your offset (I think every year). You can also buy a subscription (with big discount) and you can chose which tree/plants they'll plant.
But they all seem serious and provide a certificate of your offset (at least Atmosfair does since that is the only one I've used until now).

Many offset offers from (mostly budget) airlines can be seen as scam, as they don't offer any guarantee, certificate or even a concrete definition of what they do with your money. It's a drop on a hot plate to give you a fake sense of good conscience.

Note that only climate change is covered in this post. Pollutants produced from burning kerosene which are toxic for the environment (apart from greenhouse gas), maintenance of airplane / airports, e.t.c. are not covered here.

Other factors are obviously the type of airplane and the number of passengers it is carrying (in calculation of the effect per person).