OFFSET UPSET

Liz Read’s comment on offsetting carbon footprints of air travel was spot-on ( Letters, February 2). Not only is offsetting mere greenwashing to appease the conscience of air travellers, but also the system doesn’t actually work. There are four main reasons for this.

1. A study from April 2017 by the Öko-Institut for the European Commission found that 85% of the projects covered in the analysis are unlikely to deliver “real, measurable and additional” emission reductions. The very idea of offsetting relies on what is known as additionality – evidence that a carbon reduction would not have occurred in the natural order of commercial life.

They concluded, “Only

2% of the projects … have a high likelihood of ensuring that emission reductions are additional and are not over-estimated.”

2. It sends a message to business that they can expand airports and expand fleets of planes. It simply doesn’t change consumption habits.

3. We know, for instance, that only 50,011, or 1.66%, of three million members of Air New Zealand’s Frequent Flyers scheme offset their emissions (Air NZ newsletter to Frequent Flyer members).

4. They are far too cheap. Although aviation is the fastest growing sector of emissions and the climate emergency is rightly alarming those who know the most about it, it is unlikely offsetting schemes will ever work. So scrap them.

Deirdre Kent (Waikanae)