Silverjet attacks government carbon offset standards

Silverjet has criticised government plans establish new criteria for carbon offsetting schemes.

The start-up all business class carrier, which makes it first flight from Luton to New York next week, claims to be the world’s first airline to go completely carbon neutral by including a mandatory carbon offset contribution within its ticket prices in a scheme developed with climate change consultants the CarbonNeutral Company.

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs is to name four providers that meet its new criteria to bring “greater clarity” to the industry – including Pure, Global Cool, Equiclimate and Carbon Offsets, the BBC reported.

Environment secretary David Milliband told the BBC the new criteria would help consumers choose offsetting projects that entail “genuine” emission cuts.

But Silverjet CEO Lawrence Hunt, CEO of Silverjet, said: “We do not believe this is the best way to generate an effective take up of offset schemes.”

And he warned that consumers may wrongly think they have already paid towards offsetting emissions through the doubling of Air Passenger Duty from next month.

Hunt said: “The scheme Defra is proposing includes only so-called industrial-type Certified Emission Reductions (“CERs”). We believe that Verified Emission Reductions (“VERs”) have a real role to play in catalysing action on climate change, as these are far better suited to engaging the public and thus dealing with the issue of carbon offsets.

“VERs are more motivational for the consumer as they promote smaller scale and community projects which promote innovation and entrepreneurship in developing countries.

“An example of a VER project is a solar panel programme in India – where solar panels replace kerosene burners (the carbon-heavy but cheap fuel of choice).  That’s better for health, the climate and local wealth.

“CERs are designed to be used by countries to meet their Kyoto reduction targets.  So in leveraging business to offer CERs to the public, the worst case scenario is that this is just a back door way of Government being able to get more money out of the consumer purse – for a job they should be doing themselves.

“This could result in the environmental cause receiving only 50p in the pound after the cost of bureaucracy and government administration is deducted.

“Is it any surprise that the traders – who are concerned with money rather than climate at the end of the day – are the ones who are quoted as supporting this move from Defra.”

He added: “An additional problem is that Defra’s scheme comes on top of the Treasury’s doubling of APD.

“This is a tax camouflaged as a green initiative, and it may well mislead passengers into thinking that they have already paid to offset the carbon emissions of their trip, thus reducing the attractiveness of carbon offset schemes further.

“In addition, APD substantially limits the appeal to airlines to sign up to either Defra’s scheme or their own carbon offset projects when they already have to swallow increased costs and fare rises as a result of the tax.”

“It would be far better for Government to roll back its APD tax and allow the continued development of VERs, and thus let some integrity, clarity and effectiveness into the matter of addressing carbon emissions.”

He called for all airlines to become carbon neutral.

“If the industry was to simply charge its customers 90p for each hour they fly on average, then they could neutralise the carbon pollution created by the aviation industry,” said Hunt.

*TravelMole’s first Travel Industry Question Time of 2007 tackles the issue of how green is the travel industry this afternoon from 16.30 at the London Hilton Park Lane. See www.TravelMole.com tomorrow for a full report.

Report by Phil Davies