Carbon offsets: A key part of our transition to a low-carbon economy.

Just about everybody has an opinion on carbon offsets these days. At Treeflights we are directly engaged in the substantive activity of planting trees for people who are choosing to fly and so we are looking forward to hearing the results of the Defra consultation.

We feel that as our fossil fuel reserves start to diminish and the levels of atmospheric CO2 increase, we should all be taking much more responsibility for the resources we consume and the resulting GHG emissions. The problem of climate change is not suddenly going to go away and as it looms larger and larger in our lives we think it likely that people will want to offset more and more. We can foresee a time when to do a carbon-intensive activity such as flying without offsetting, will be seen in the same light as smoking around young children – as being selfish and destructive to future generations.

It’s evident that the offset market needs to evolve and improve. All the various ways of balancing emissions or absorbing carbon from the air have their problems and these are well-documented. Carbon-offset forestry is particularly controversial for any number of reasons. At Treeflights we take the view that trees can, and should, play an important part in our upcoming struggle to address global warming and that we have to develop ways to take advantage of their immense absorptive capabilities.

Some commentators see offsets as an exculpation of guilt, others as a licence to pollute. Every day we deal with the ordinary people who buy offsets and our experience indicates that consumers are genuinely looking for ways to make good the damage that they are causing. The minority who offset are demonstrating a new kind of altruistic ecological awareness. Our customers receive nothing back from us when they purchase a Treeflight other than the knowledge that a tree has been planted that will gradually withdraw CO2 from the atmosphere.

We think it is critically important for the future that people should be encouraged to be more aware of the environmental repercussions of their actions and that the altruism that underlies the voluntary offset market should be acknowledged and valued. Offsetting our emissions is far better than doing nothing when we are choosing to release CO2.

Today, a young carbon-hungry forest of two thousand trees is growing on a Welsh mountainside. It has been created entirely by the voluntary contributions of ordinary airline passengers.

www.treeflights.com