A lot needs to be done to make tourism more sustainable. Can carbon offsetting flights and other travel emissions be part of the solution? Is it effective? How does it work? Read the article to find answers to all these questions and more.

With air travel being more available than ever, tourism-related carbon emissions are increasing dramatically. For instance, between 2009 and 2013, the carbon footprint of the travel industry went from 3.9 to 4.5 gigatons of CO₂ annually and it is estimated that by 2035 that number will be more than double (Journal of Cleaner Production).

Obviously, a couple of figures can’t summarize such a complex issue, but it is evident that we have to do better. We need quick decarbonization of the industry while making sure that nobody is left behind.

Is carbon offsetting flights and other emissions part of the solution? Well, it could – and this article will explore this topic in more detail while providing you with a step-by-step guide to carbon offsetting flights and travel emissions.

Just remember – carbon offsetting is not the first step in your journey to sustainable travel. Reducing your carbon footprint should always be the priority.

What is carbon offsetting?

The Oxford Dictionary provides a simple yet effective definition of carbon offsetting:

“Carbon offsetting [is] a way for a company or person to reduce the level of carbon dioxide for which they are responsible by paying money to a company that works to reduce the total amount produced in the world.”

For instance, it is estimated that a person living in Europe (like me) generates 6.8 tonnes of CO₂ annually. At the end of the year, I could find a renewable energy project in Australia and donate money to produce the amount of green energy needed to save 6.8 tonnes of CO₂. This means that I haven’t eliminated my emissions directly, but I helped avoid the same amount of emissions elsewhere. So, the overall balance is evened out.

It’s called carbon offsetting because carbon dioxide is the most common gas, but offsetting involves different kinds of gases.

Why is carbon offsetting important?

As already mentioned, tourism is responsible for 8% of global emissions with that percentage increasing rapidly year after year. It is estimated that the carbon footprint of the travel industry will reach 6.5 gigatons of CO₂ per year in 2025 and over 9 gigatons in 2035. These one-digit numbers may seem small, but they aren’t – that’s a massive carbon footprint.

It’s clear that something should be done to make the travel industry more climate-friendly. But it’s important to understand how the emissions are generated and how they can be reduced before resorting to offsetting. Let’s take a look.

Where do the emissions come from?

Well, the question has no easy answer. The tourism industry generates direct emissions that are the result of tourism activities (for example, the fuel used to drive visitors around for a safari) and indirect emissions that are produced by those supplying to tourism businesses (for example, the fuel used by a truck to transport food to a hotel). That’s why estimates are not always consistent.

However, to give you an idea, here’s a breakdown of the carbon footprint of tourism found in Nature Climate Change.

What can we do about them?

Climate change is an incredibly complex issue and cooperation between governments, businesses and individuals is key to addressing it.

• Governments and tourism boards should include carbon emissions in their growth strategies and set targets for decarbonization.
• Businesses should also do their part by assessing their impact, reducing their emissions, and offsetting what’s left.
• Finally, travelers should be aware of the impact of their trips, reduce their carbon footprint by making the right choices, and offset unavoidable emissions.

And this is where you come in! But how do you buy carbon offsets exactly? Where to start?

Carbon offsetting flights and other travel emissions

To make things easier, here’s a fool-proof guide to minimizing your impact and carbon offsetting flights and other travel emissions. I’ve broken down the entire process into 5 steps.

Step 1: Measure your carbon footprint

As the saying goes, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”. So, before even looking for ways to offset your emissions, you should measure your carbon footprint.

There are many ways to go about this.

For instance, if you’re only interested in offsetting your flights and travel emissions, it makes sense to estimate your carbon footprint after each trip and offset it right away.

If, instead, you’re looking to offset all of the emissions you generate with your daily activities and lifestyle, it may be a better idea to calculate your carbon footprint at the end of the year and offset everything at once.

Either way, the many carbon calculators available online can truly help you estimate your impact.

Here are some of the best ones.

1. Clear

Clear is arguably the best option whether you want to estimate your total carbon footprint or just your travel emissions. They provide multiple calculators to measure the impact of your house, commute, car, electric vehicle, and internet as well as flights, hotel, and popular activities to do on vacation (such as skydiving and balloon rides).

The results will be much more accurate compared to calculators that are not as detailed.

2. ICAO

ICAO’s Carbon Emission Calculator for flights is the only internationally approved tool to calculate the carbon footprint of air travel. It’s very easy to use, yet the methodology behind it is very meticulous. Not only does it measure the emissions based on the distance traveled but also takes into account the type of aircraft, route-specific factors, the number of occupied seats, and the amount of cargo carried.

3. GoClimate

GoClimate provides a Travel Emission Calculator that allows you to measure the carbon footprint of traveling from point A to point B with different modes of transportation. So, you can calculate the amount of emissions generated by your trip but also compare them with other transportation options. It may also be a great tool to use during the planning stages of your trip to help you choose low-carbon transportation modes. GoClimate also has a Flight Carbon Calculator.

4. The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy helps you estimate your emissions with their interactive Carbon Footprint Calculator. The categories you can choose from are Home, Travel, Food, Goods and Services. The results are shown along with charts that make it very easy to spot the areas with the highest impact.

Step 2: Reduce your carbon emissions

Now that you have an idea of how high your carbon footprint is, it’s time to reduce it as much as possible. Minimizing your emissions is always better than offsetting them later.

For example, you could travel by train instead of flying short distances, or you could use public transportation instead of renting a car. Even when you have no choice but flying, there is something you can do to reduce your carbon footprint. Here are three tips:

1. Choose a carbon-efficient airline

Airlines with low-carbon technologies, newer planes and efficient fuels emit less CO₂ compared to less eco-friendly airlines that cover the same routes. Where do you find these airlines though?

The atmosfair Airline Index ranks the 200 largest airlines in the world according to their carbon efficiency. The model they use takes into account several elements such as type of aircrafts used, engines, winglets, seating capacity, freight capacity, and load factors. Similarly, the ICCT periodically shares reports on the fuel efficiency of different airlines.

Last but not least, Google Flights has the option to sort the flights by their CO₂ emissions.

2. Fly economy

It may be hard to give up all the amenities and extra legroom but, with more people sitting on the plane, the individual carbon footprint and the fuel burned per person are much lower.

3. Prefer direct flights

Aircrafts burn a huge amount of fuel during takeoff and landing. If you can fly directly, you avoid all the extra emissions generated by the layovers.

Don’t forget that a lot can be done after you arrive at your destination as well. If you couldn’t avoid flying, it’s even more important to reduce the carbon footprint of your stay.

Here you can read some of my guides to sustainable accommodation, animal tourism, packing, and local travel.

Unfortunately, our world is not built to be carbon neutral. Even if we put all our efforts and resources into reducing our footprint, we won’t be able to fully eliminate our emissions.

This is when offsetting comes in. The carbon offset provider myclimate perfectly summarizes this step in their motto: “do your best, offset the rest”.

Step 3: Choose a carbon offset program

The first thing to do to offset your emissions is to choose a program to purchase the offsets from. You have two main options when it comes to offsetting flights and travel emissions: offsetting through the airline or buying offsets directly from a provider. Here are the pros and cons.

1. Airlines

The easiest way to offset your flights is through the airline you’re flying with – you pay an extra fee when purchasing your ticket and the company will take care of everything else.

The downside is that this option only covers the emissions generated by your flights and not the overall carbon footprint of your trip.

Plus, these programs are too often unreliable, inaccurate, or plain greenwashing.

For instance, a lot of airlines rely on tree-planting schemes but the amount of trees planted is not nearly enough to compensate for the emissions they claim to offset. In addition, tree planting is one of the least efficient ways to offset your carbon footprint because it requires several years (if not decades) to absorb the CO₂ emitted by just one flight.

The risk is that airlines pick low-quality projects just to have a certificate to showcase on their website but are not really interested in actually finding reliable and transparent organizations.

If you still want to offset your emissions through an airline, double check where the money goes and how the company guarantees their claims are truthful.

2. Carbon offsetting programs

A much better alternative is buying offsets from carbon offsetting programs. This way, not only will you be able to offset all of your emissions rather than just the flights, but will also be provided with many different projects to choose from.

As always, make sure you choose a good program. It’s always a good sign when the program is verified by internationally-recognized standards that guarantee the quality and effectiveness of the offsets. You can also scroll through their website and look for reports and data about their work.

If you’re looking into carbon offsetting for the first time, it may be difficult to tell which programs are reliable and navigate all the information out there.

Step 4: Choose a carbon offset project

Once you have picked the right offset program for you, you can start scrolling through the projects available on their website and choose the one you want to support.

There’s no right or wrong way to do this, but you may want to consider the following points:

1. Some projects are more efficient than others.

Carbon offsetting projects reduce or remove CO₂ using a variety of methods such as renewable energy, direct air capture, reforestation, wastewater treatment, and so forth.

Some of these methods are more efficient than others because they can be implemented in short time, are permanent, and immediately produce results. As already mentioned, Direct Air Capture is one of the best carbon offsetting schemes because the CO₂ is captured directly from the air and permanently stored underground.

On the other hand, tree planting is quite inefficient. It takes years or decades before the tress absorb the amount of CO₂ stated in the offset certificate. Plus, offsets based on reforestation can be easily reversed if the trees are cut.

It should also be noted that supporting a Direct Air Capture project is far more expensive compared to a reforestation one.

So, you should choose the most efficient option you can find for your budget. Renewable energy projects are usually a good compromise.

If you want to know which methods of carbon offsetting are more efficient, look at the flowchart created by the University of Oxford in The Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting.

2. The project has to be additional.

Additionality means that the project has been made possible by the offset purchases and wouldn’t have happened without them.

3. The project has been verified by a third party.

The best way to be sure the project is additional, but also reliable, effective, and permanent, is to check if the projects has been verified by an international standard such as the Gold Standard, Plan Vivo, the Verified Carbon Standard, and so on.

Don’t stress too much about it though. If you choose a good offset program, all the projects will be high-quality. Some providers give you the option to just purchase offsets and they will choose the projects to support for you.

Step 5: Buy carbon offsets

All that’s left to do now is buy the carbon offsets!

Follow the instructions you find on the program’s website and proceed with the payment.

Carbon offset programs usually allow you to either calculate your emissions using their calculators to determine how much you have to pay or just enter the amount of CO₂ you want to offset. If you have already calculated your carbon footprint with another tool, you don’t need do to that again.

You might also have the option to choose between a one-off payment (you buy the offsets once and may or may not buy them again from that program) or a subscription (you donate money to the program on an ongoing basis until you cancel your subscription).

Once the payment is completed, you’ll receive a certificate and all the details about your offsets, including exactly how many tonnes of CO₂ have been offset.

Final thoughts

You made it to the end of this guide to carbon offsetting flights and travel emissions, and added another tool to your sustainable travel toolbox!

While carbon offsetting flights should not be the first step in your sustainability journey, it’s definitely an effective way to compensate for the emissions you can’t avoid.

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