Gingersnap
11-19-2009, 12:48 PM
Experts say carbon offsets offset only travelers' guilt
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
New York Times
POSTED: 12:10 a.m. HST, Nov 18, 2009
In 2002 Responsible Travel became one of the first travel companies to offer customers the option of buying so-called carbon offsets to counter the planet-warming emissions generated by their airline flights.
But in October, Responsible Travel canceled the program, saying that while it might help travelers feel virtuous, it was not helping to reduce global emissions. In fact, company officials said, it might even encourage some people to travel or consume more.
"The carbon offset has become this magic pill, a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card," Justin Francis, the managing director of Responsible Travel, said in an interview. "It's seductive to the consumer who says, 'It's $4 and I'm carbon-neutral, so I can fly all I want."'
Offsets, he argues, are distracting people from making more significant behavioral changes, like flying less.
In theory, the purchase of carbon offsets is supposed to cancel out the emissions generated by activities like flying or heating office buildings by directing money to programs that reduce emissions elsewhere, like tree-planting in Africa or a hydropower project in Brazil. An airline passenger might volunteer to pay $5 to $40 to offset his flight, with the price linked to distance.
Offsets have played a growing role in the greening of travel because carbon dioxide emissions from airplanes are growing so quickly and there is currently no technological fix that would drastically lower them.
In the United States, dozens of hotels and airlines have embraced such programs in the last year or two. United Airlines became the latest American airline to offer one this summer. Globally, offset programs have grown into a multimillion-dollar industry.
But it has proved difficult to monitor or quantify the emissions-reducing potential of the thousands of green projects financed by customers' payments, and there are no industrywide standards.
Responsible Travel is not the only organization that has changed its mind about the usefulness of offsets: Yahoo and the U.S. House of Representatives both ended trial offset-purchase programs this year, concluding that the money was better spent on improving their buildings' energy efficiency.
Some of the world's leading experts on the emissions issue have reviewed and rejected purchasing offsets for air travel.
"We're always looking at it, but so far I've decided not to do it," said Paul Dickenson, chief executive of the Carbon Disclosure Project, a vast nonprofit consortium of companies that have pledged to report and reduce their emissions. For one thing, he said, offsetting the emissions of a flight from London to New York would probably require an extra fee of $200 to $300, far above what any airline is now charging.
And some experts say that emissions from airline travel are simply so large that it may be impossible to offset them.
"Buying offsets is a nice idea, just like giving money to a soup kitchen is a nice idea, but that doesn't end world hunger," said Anja Kollmuss, a staff scientist for the Stockholm Environment Institute who is based at a branch at Tufts University.
Star Bulletin (http://www.starbulletin.com/news/nyt/20091118_Experts_say_carbon_offsets_offset_only_tr avelers_guilt.html)
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
New York Times
POSTED: 12:10 a.m. HST, Nov 18, 2009
In 2002 Responsible Travel became one of the first travel companies to offer customers the option of buying so-called carbon offsets to counter the planet-warming emissions generated by their airline flights.
But in October, Responsible Travel canceled the program, saying that while it might help travelers feel virtuous, it was not helping to reduce global emissions. In fact, company officials said, it might even encourage some people to travel or consume more.
"The carbon offset has become this magic pill, a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card," Justin Francis, the managing director of Responsible Travel, said in an interview. "It's seductive to the consumer who says, 'It's $4 and I'm carbon-neutral, so I can fly all I want."'
Offsets, he argues, are distracting people from making more significant behavioral changes, like flying less.
In theory, the purchase of carbon offsets is supposed to cancel out the emissions generated by activities like flying or heating office buildings by directing money to programs that reduce emissions elsewhere, like tree-planting in Africa or a hydropower project in Brazil. An airline passenger might volunteer to pay $5 to $40 to offset his flight, with the price linked to distance.
Offsets have played a growing role in the greening of travel because carbon dioxide emissions from airplanes are growing so quickly and there is currently no technological fix that would drastically lower them.
In the United States, dozens of hotels and airlines have embraced such programs in the last year or two. United Airlines became the latest American airline to offer one this summer. Globally, offset programs have grown into a multimillion-dollar industry.
But it has proved difficult to monitor or quantify the emissions-reducing potential of the thousands of green projects financed by customers' payments, and there are no industrywide standards.
Responsible Travel is not the only organization that has changed its mind about the usefulness of offsets: Yahoo and the U.S. House of Representatives both ended trial offset-purchase programs this year, concluding that the money was better spent on improving their buildings' energy efficiency.
Some of the world's leading experts on the emissions issue have reviewed and rejected purchasing offsets for air travel.
"We're always looking at it, but so far I've decided not to do it," said Paul Dickenson, chief executive of the Carbon Disclosure Project, a vast nonprofit consortium of companies that have pledged to report and reduce their emissions. For one thing, he said, offsetting the emissions of a flight from London to New York would probably require an extra fee of $200 to $300, far above what any airline is now charging.
And some experts say that emissions from airline travel are simply so large that it may be impossible to offset them.
"Buying offsets is a nice idea, just like giving money to a soup kitchen is a nice idea, but that doesn't end world hunger," said Anja Kollmuss, a staff scientist for the Stockholm Environment Institute who is based at a branch at Tufts University.
Star Bulletin (http://www.starbulletin.com/news/nyt/20091118_Experts_say_carbon_offsets_offset_only_tr avelers_guilt.html)