Airlines under fire over carbon offsetting

Airlines have been accused by a group of MPs for failing to do enough to encourage carbon offsetting of flights.

British Airways was singled out for its “risible” attempts on offsetting by the Environmental Audit Committee.

The committee’s report supports Government proposals to require all those selling air tickets within the UK to include in the price the cost of an offset, and to retail that offset along with the ticket unless the customer requests otherwise.

The report said that “some mitigation of the effects of the current trends in

emissions from air travel could be achieved were offsets to be mandatory for all airline tickets bought in the UK, or for all flights commencing in the UK, or for all UK airline tickets bought.

“We recommended in our recent report on transport emissions that the Government should make offsetting payments a compulsory charge on all airline tickets.”

But it admitted: “Although offsetting alone will have only a minor impact at best on increases in global emissions as a result of air travel, the action of offsetting air travel may encourage better carbon behaviour overall.”

The committee said there was an “urgent need” for the Government to overhaul its aviation policy after hearing how the unexpected rise in Air Passenger Duty has discouraged co-operation by carriers.

The report said: “While we commend the Government’s attempts to bring the airline industry together in a more co-operative and active way, and to encourage their giving greater prominence to offsetting, there is clearly an urgent need for the Government to re-think its entire aviation strategy, notwithstanding its apparent belief in the over-riding social and economic merits of ever-expanding air travel.”

Describing APD as “clearly a blunt instrument,” the committee said the increase announced in the 2006 pre-Budget report “startled the airline industry” and led to most pulling away from even contemplating co-operation with a proposed Department for the Environment Code on offsetting.

The committee took oral evidence from BA, Virgin Atlantic and Silverjet and said: “The three airlines were still not disposed to consider whole-hearted co-operation with the Government over offsetting on account of the unexpected increase in APD.

“As the current use of offsets by all three companies varies, there was also clearly a lack of consensus on the value of offsetting with regard to air travel which may anyway have obstructed such corporate co-operation.”

The report added that since BA’s offsetting scheme with Climate Care was launched in 2005, the airline has encouraged the purchase of only 1,600 tonnes of offsets on average each year, approximately the emissions from “four return flights to New York on a 777”.

“This is risible,” the report said. “The company clearly recognises this, and during our evidence session announced its intention to improve the prominence and accessibility of offsetting on its website from the beginning of May. At the time of our agreeing this report, this simple change had not yet been made.

“Virgin Atlantic currently offers no offsets of its own to its customers, nor does it point them towards an offset provider or allow them to calculate the emissions for their flight.”

The airline did, however, indicate that it would be launching an offsetting initiative later this year.  

“We look forward to the launch of this initiative and hope that it is pursued with greater vigour than was the case with BA’s pioneering launch of its own offset initiative a couple of years ago,” the committee said.

Silverjet CEO Lawrence Hunt told the committee that “the airline industry, frankly, has been pathetic in its response to [its environmental impact] over the last four or five years.”

The report said: “The position taken by Mr Hunt of Silverjet was at some remove from those of his bigger rivals. The decision taken to make Silverjet carbon-neutral through the purchase and retirement of offsets was put forward as the most direct and appropriate response by an airline to the environmental damage with which it was associated.”

BA reportedly responded by saying it hoped to upgrade the way in which its offsetting scheme works but plans had been delayed by the decision to double APD.

by Phil Davies