ABTA to make Cairo conference ‘climate neutral’

Tuesday, 28 May, 2002 0

TravelMole exclusive

An ABTA spokesperson has told TravelMole that it will be offsetting the carbon dioxide emissions of all delegates to its annual conference in Cairo later this year.

The process is being implemented by Climate Care, the company that works with the travel and tourism industry to offset passengers’ emissions when they fly.

Tom Morton, Climate Care, explained to TravelMole that ABTA wants to make the conference ‘climate neutral’. By this he means that ABTA will offset the carbon dioxide (and other greenhouses gases such as nitrous oxide and water vapour) produced by delegates attending the conference.

Climate Care has worked out that for every delegate attending the conference, 800 kilos of CO2 will be produced as a result of flying to and from Cairo, and 121 kilos of CO2 will be produced as a result of staying in a hotel for 5 days and travelling to and from the conference every day. This totals 921 kilos – just under a tonne per delegate.

Mr Morton explained that the average production of a person living in the UK for a year is 12 tonnes, so the amount of CO2 produced as a result of a delegate attending the conference is equivalent the delegate living for a month in the UK.

The calculations also show that 86% of the CO2 produced in attending the conference will occur as a result of flying to and from the conference.

ABTA will ‘offset’ the emissions by investing in a number of Climate Care’s projects that seek to reduce CO2 emissions by quantifiable amounts. Climate Care will offset the emissions in its current portfolio of projects. These include a hydro project in Bulgaria (which will save the production of 3,500 tonnes of CO2 throughout its life time), a reforestation project in Uganda, and its low-energy light bulb project currently underway in Mauritius.

See our previous stories:
28-Mar-2002 WWF: Holidays abroad needn’t cost the Earth
5-Dec-2001 Aviation`s contribution to climate change
2-Dec-2001 Mauritius: Energy efficient bulbs brighten island`s future
19-Sep-2001 Hotel benchmarking tool identifies £400m environmental cost savings
26-Jan-2001 TravelMole’s list of Sustainable Tourism Organisations/Companies

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Climate Care is a scheme that lets individuals and companies pay to ‘offset’ the emissions created by their use of products such as petrol and diesel, electricity and gas, and air travel. Companies and individuals who want to stop adding to global warming can use Climate Care to offset the emissions from some or all of their operations. For more information contact Tom Morton. Please mention you read this information on TravelMole.