Our small change for big reward
By the end of this year, I’ll have taken three long-haul flights, to the United States, Europe, and India. I will have flown more than 83,110 kilometres and generated more than 6082 kilograms of CO2 emissions. To put that into perspective, I will have been responsible for melting more than 59.46 square kilometres of Arctic sea ice (imagine an area the size of a queen-size bed, then multiply that by 20).
Do I feel guilty? Yes, but I try to ensure any work travel I do doubles with personal travel. This year, I was able to see my niece perform ballet on stage for the first time in Portland, Oregon, I went to my best friend’s wedding in London and, later this year, I’ll spend time with my ageing and slightly unwell parents in India.
To assuage that guilt, for $127.90, I bought carbon credits to offset my contribution to climate change.
By 2037, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicts there will be 8.3 billion air travellers – that’s double last year’s number. While that number is startling, it’s important to note that it doesn’t mean most of the world’s population (predicted to be 8.5 billion by 2030) will have flown. If you’ve taken two flights, you count as two passengers. You’d count as four passengers if those were return flights.
It’s still an alarming increase though and the aviation industry is doing its part with goals of carbon-neutral growth from next year, and most airlines, tourism boards and travel companies have sustainability strategies.
In the New York Times, Andy Newman wrote, ‘‘Personal decisions alone won’t stop global warming – that will take policy changes by governments on a worldwide scale. Tourism creates millions of jobs in places starved for economic development. Carbon offsets can effectively cancel out our footprint, can’t they?’’
In theory, I’d say maybe. In reality, it won’t magically fix everything, but we could all do our part.
In an editorial on the role Stuff will take in covering climate change, Stuff editor-in-chief Patrick Crewdson wrote: ‘‘Despair isn’t the worst reaction to climate change. Complacency might be.’’
But promoting travel is still important. There’s a wealth of knowledge to be gained from travel, and a tolerance to be learnt that can only come from experiencing new cultures and seeing new ways of life. There’s a real danger of becoming insular without those experiences.
We also need to report first-hand from countries heaving under the pressure of overtourism, and inspire our readers to visit destinations that support local businesses and need your tourist dollar.
But we’ll also inform you of the carbon emissions you’ll generate if you were to go to the destinations we promote. Our travel stories will now include an information panel detailing the carbon emissions you’ll generate, as well as a link to buy carbon credits.
We buy carbon offsets for all our travelling reporters and encourage all Kiwis to do the same.
Earlier this year, Stuff reported how Air New Zealand’s Kiwi customers offset only about 5 per cent of their journeys booked online, making our national carrier one of our ‘‘largest climate polluters’’.
The airline has a voluntary offset scheme where passengers can buy carbon credits to offset their flights through its FlyNeutral programme. The emissions for each flight are divided among the passenger seats on that flight. Each passenger can pay to offset the emissions caused by their share of the flight’s emissions.
We’ve partnered with Air New Zealand to help promote FlyNeutral and encourage our readers to consider offsetting their carbon emissions.
Neither Stuff nor Air New Zealand receives any money if you choose to use the FlyNeutral programme. Your contribution goes towards buying carbon credits that help fund emission reduction projects in New Zealand and other countries across the airline’s network.
If you’re booking with Air New Zealand, tick the box to offset your emissions. If you’ve already flown, or are booked on to another airline, you can still work out your emissions by starting with the Air NZ booking process and clicking the ‘‘offset your emissions’’ box.
By 2037, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicts there will be 8.3 billion air travellers – that’s double last year’s number.