Carbon offsetting is an integral element of the sector's strategy. Already, airlines offer voluntary carbon offsetting to those customers who wish to mitigate the impact of their travel.
Dr Susanne Becken is the Vice Chair of the EarthCheck Research Institute, Professor of Sustainable Tourism and the Director of the Griffith Institute for Tourism at Griffith University. Her latest paper looks at the current context of carbon offsetting in the aviation sector, taking into account current science, policy and current airline practices to propose five principles of best practice for carbon offsetting that airlines can use as a basis to develop credible emissions strategies, and that could inform the sectoral framework currently being developed by leading aviation organisations.
The paper has several findings of the current state of carbon offsetting in the aviation secotor:
Download the publication here.
The report provides timely insights at an interesting time for the aviation industry. As the push towards the carbon market gains traction, airlines are already implementing emission reduction and offsetting programs in their operations in anticipation of future carbon offsetting requirements set out by governments under the Nationally Determined Contributions of the Paris Agreement. The CORSIA guide, a joint paper by South Pole Group and IETA, provides a premliminarry framework for preparing for this shift.