THE WAY FORWARD

Most business travellers will understand the truth of this. But it returns us to the question at the start of our article. What should we do (other than change jobs)? The opinion of Andrew Murphy, who works for Transport and Environment, a European research and campaign group for clean transport, is clear: “Offsetting was invented 20 years ago out of nowhere by those who wanted to delay action on climate change. The longer we keep it going, the longer we legitimise the concept that we can continue to pollute the atmosphere.”

So what does he suggest? “What each industry has to do is begin a tailored path to cutting its own emissions. Individuals should support and vote for politicians who are supporting action on climate change. Keeping climate at the top of the agenda is more important than buying offsets. Any money spent on carbon offsetting would be better given to charities in the developing world to help protect the vulnerable who are being affected by climate change.”

Tyers agrees. “If the end goal is to alleviate human suffering from climate change, then I’d donate directly to disaster relief. You’d get far more for your money.”

It’s notable that while some airlines have come late to the offsetting game, it now has gone mainstream. Nearly every major airline offers some way of offsetting. As we went to press, Finnair announced a new initiative to offer “green tickets” alongside regular ones. Details are yet to be revealed but it will offer passengers the opportunity to pay an extra surcharge on top of the ticket price at the time of booking. Finnair will match whatever surcharge the passenger is prepared to pay, and this will apply whether the passenger chooses a carbon offset programme or a proportion of the fuel to be SAF.

For the rest of us, it is a question of whether we should trust the mechanisms of carbon offsetting while trying to reduce our travel, or instead donate directly to the relevant charities.