Virgin sells carbon flight offsets

AN airline is attempting to embarrass its passengers into paying compensation for the climate change emissions of their flights by getting cabin crews to sell “carbon offsets” from the duty-free trolley.

Virgin Atlantic has instructed crew to announce to each row of passengers that they are offering the offsetting service as well as discounted perfume and alcohol.

Virgin believes that peer pressure will play a big part in persuading people to offset their emissions. Unlike the situation with so-called “charity muggers” outside stations, passengers at 36,000ft cannot walk away.

The price varies according to the class of seat and the distance flown. An economy class passenger flying from London to New York is being asked to pay pound stg. 5.33 one way. The cost of offsetting a business class seat from London to Sydney is pound stg. 26.54 ($60) one way.

Consumer watchdog Which? voiced concern that passengers would be placed in an awkward position and might feel obliged to pay for something they did not really want.

James Tallack, Which? transport researcher, said: “We would not want people to be made to feel uncomfortable. Offsetting is essentially an individual’s choice and these schemes are not yet regulated, which might undermine confidence in them.”

Virgin decided on the more confrontational approach to selling carbon offsets after observing the low participation in schemes run by other airlines that simply offered it as an option on their websites.

British Airways was criticised in July by the Commons Environmental Audit Committee for its “risible” scheme. Last year, BA sold only enough offsets to neutralise 0.01 per cent of its emissions. An investigation by The Times found that some BA sales staff were unaware of the scheme. It was difficult to find the booking form on the airline’s website because there was no link from the home page.

A Virgin spokesman said that the airline expected a much higher take-up among its passengers. “If the person sitting next to you chooses to offset their flight, it may prick your conscience and you may pay too. We could see half the plane decide to offset. We are making this scheme as accessible as possible and we believe it will be the acid test of whether people really are willing to offset their emissions.”

The Green Skies Alliance, a coalition of environmental groups opposed to the growth of aviation, welcomed Richard Branson’s pledge to reduce the environmental impact of flights and said the scheme would help draw attention to the problem.

But Jeff Gazzard, a spokesman for the alliance, added: “Carbon offsetting is no substitute for cutting your own emissions by taking fewer flights. Pope Richard is selling papal indulgences which have uncertain value in reducing climate change.”

Virgin has devised the scheme with the help of Myclimate, a Swiss-based charity that promotes sustainable energy projects in developing countries. All the money paid by passengers would go to Myclimate, said the airline, which will spend 85 per cent of it on projects and 15 per cent on administration. Projects include an electricity generator in India that runs on farm waste, such as sugar cane husks, and a hydropower plant in Indonesia.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is developing a standard for offsetting schemes and is considering how to verify that projects are achieving the carbon reduction they claim.

Which? said that passengers might want to wait to see whether Virgin’s scheme achieved the Government’s standard.

Source: The Times