Go Back  FlyerTalk Forums > Travel&Dining > Eco-conscious Travel
Reload this Page >

Do you buy carbon offsets?

View Poll Results: Do you buy carbon offsets when you fly?
Yes, always.
8.33%
Never
91.67%
Sometimes, depends on the situation
0
0%
Voters: 12. You may not vote on this poll

Do you buy carbon offsets?

Old May 31, 2022, 1:28 pm
  #1  
Senior Moderator; Moderator, Eco-Conscious Travel, United and Flyertalk Cares
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: Fulltime travel/mostly Europe
Programs: UA 1.7 MM;; Accor & Marriott Pt; Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 17,823
Do you buy carbon offsets?

Do you buy carbon offsets when you fly?

Why or why not?

If you do, do you use the airline’s provider or someone else. Is there any way to be sure they’re reliably doing what they claim?
l etoile is offline  
Old Feb 1, 2023, 3:41 pm
  #2  
 
Join Date: May 2020
Location: Europe
Posts: 12
In my opinion it would be super logic that these were included in the flight ticket.
For a start it should be mandatory to clearly display the impact of each flight in a way everyone understands, when selling a flight ticket. Informing people is already a big step.
Analogue to ingredients of a product, emissions of a vehicle, health / environment class of energy consuming devices that have to be displayed "clearly" (which seem to be very open for interpretation).
Thanks to petroleum and air transport lobby who continuously keep investing hard to prevent this simple policy, passengers will not be given any information about environmental impact at all.

Also an easy way, just with a click on a button, should be provided to give the buyer the option to compensate its flight impact.

Sad thing is that many companies who sell offsets (often budget airlines) have their own free interpretation in "offsetting your flight". The sky is the limit, with Ryanair as champion who offered to offset my 2 hour flight for..... 1 € ! Probably based on the ultra low fare of 9 € I payed for the ticket. So if you fly for free you are flying climate neutral, according to Ryanair.
If people actually believe this, they minimize the issue to almost nothing.

More info on offsetting can be found on this topic: Carbon Offsets , serious sites where you can offset your flights on this post: impact calculation and buying offsets

My strategy:
  • find cheap flight tickets (error fares, fuel dump, hidden city ticketing, promotions) and offset them with the saved money.
    These cost often more than the flight ticket itself, but in many cases still save in comparison to the average price of a ticket to the same destination.
  • Combine travels which are close to your destination and stopovers in your flight itinerary. If you have the option to do this with extended unpaid vacation, this can be even cheaper than working weeks/months longer to pay for another stack of flight tickets for your whole family traveling with you. These long far holidays compensate for alternating between holidays short from home (which can also be beautiful).
  • Take the (high speed) train when you can. The difference in travel time for distances under 1 000 km / 600 miles are really almost nothing when you include travel time to airport (which is mostly remote from city center), arrival 2 hours before departure, check-in, check-out, travel from airport to city,... Night trains even save time in comparison to day flights (assuming you sleep at night). At least in West- and central-Europe where almost all travel can be done with (high speed) train in less than 24 hours. Different story in regions without an extensive high speed rail network. But still can be adventurous
It just sucks that you have by far not the same consumer rights in case of delays, cancellations with ground travel as with air travel. Equating these would make ground travel much more attractive.
l etoile likes this.
Phantasy is offline  
Old Feb 14, 2023, 12:07 am
  #3  
Moderator: Manufactured Spending
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 6,576
No, I don't buy offsets. I think the idea of offsets is a great one, but I have no way of knowing if the money is being used for its intended purpose, how they are measuring the amount of the offset, or whether the project they invest in would have received funding otherwise. I also don't want to normalize the idea of pollution prevention to be voluntary.

I do, however, donate money to various environmental charities, both local ones in my community and a couple of the big national/global ones.
l etoile likes this.
cbn42 is offline  
Old Jun 1, 2023, 4:25 am
  #4  
Senior Moderator; Moderator, Eco-Conscious Travel, United and Flyertalk Cares
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: Fulltime travel/mostly Europe
Programs: UA 1.7 MM;; Accor & Marriott Pt; Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 17,823
Originally Posted by cbn42
No, I don't buy offsets. I think the idea of offsets is a great one, but I have no way of knowing if the money is being used for its intended purpose, how they are measuring the amount of the offset, or whether the project they invest in would have received funding otherwise. I also don't want to normalize the idea of pollution prevention to be voluntary.
.
I have the same thoughts.

This was an interesting story from ProPublica that certainly didn’t give credibility to it, and suggested it can do more harm than good. I agree that pollution prevention shouldn’t be voluntary and that there are other things we can do as individuals that we can be assured are more impactful. I’m vegan for many reasons, but at the top is deforestation and land/water usage for livestock.



From ProPublica:

“In case after case, I found that carbon credits hadn’t offset the amount of pollution they were supposed to, or they had brought gains that were quickly reversed or that couldn’t be accurately measured to begin with. Ultimately, the polluters got a guilt-free pass to keep emitting CO₂, but the forest preservation that was supposed to balance the ledger either never came or didn’t last.”

https://features.propublica.org/braz...acre-cambodia/

Last edited by l etoile; Jun 1, 2023 at 11:47 pm
l etoile is offline  
Old Jun 1, 2023, 7:00 pm
  #5  
 
Join Date: Feb 2023
Location: YOW
Programs: Aeroplan
Posts: 27
I’ve been considering buying them recently but I’m not sure if I should purchase from the airline or a third party? What is really best for the environment?
Decipher7610 is offline  
Old Jun 2, 2023, 4:49 am
  #6  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,103
About 20-25 years ago, I was asked about taking a different course and building a business selling carbon offsets. It made me suspicious that the whole thing really wasn’t at least as much as or more about money than about delivering positive environmental returns and that it would be but a vehicle for (what would later be termed) greenwashing and paying off intermediaries not necessarily all that vested in delivering on growing environmental concerns. Since then, I’ve never directly put a penny toward buying carbon offsets for my personal activities and am not a fan of the airlines trying to sell me on them — especially in the way they do.

While I do fly a lot and appreciate what my contribution to flight demand may do, I consider my partial offset to be other lifestyle adjustments and pursuits rather than directly paying airlines or airline selected vendors for carbon offsets. It also hasn’t been all that motivating to buy them via airline channels when the airlines seem more interested in post-purchase sales of seat selection, luggage, lounge access, etc. and the side push for carbon offset sales comes across as the airline seeking subsidies from their customers sort of in the way they do with some of these “miles for charities” things that go on.

Last edited by GUWonder; Jun 2, 2023 at 5:00 am
GUWonder is offline  
Old Jun 9, 2023, 5:52 pm
  #7  
 
Join Date: Feb 2023
Location: YOW
Programs: Aeroplan
Posts: 27
Originally Posted by GUWonder
About 20-25 years ago, I was asked about taking a different course and building a business selling carbon offsets. It made me suspicious that the whole thing really wasn’t at least as much as or more about money than about delivering positive environmental returns and that it would be but a vehicle for (what would later be termed) greenwashing and paying off intermediaries not necessarily all that vested in delivering on growing environmental concerns. Since then, I’ve never directly put a penny toward buying carbon offsets for my personal activities and am not a fan of the airlines trying to sell me on them — especially in the way they do.

While I do fly a lot and appreciate what my contribution to flight demand may do, I consider my partial offset to be other lifestyle adjustments and pursuits rather than directly paying airlines or airline selected vendors for carbon offsets. It also hasn’t been all that motivating to buy them via airline channels when the airlines seem more interested in post-purchase sales of seat selection, luggage, lounge access, etc. and the side push for carbon offset sales comes across as the airline seeking subsidies from their customers sort of in the way they do with some of these “miles for charities” things that go on.
I agree. It feels weird to me to pay the airline for the offset. That’s why I think if I ever buy them, I’ll probably do it through another organization.
SPN Lifer likes this.
Decipher7610 is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.