Cologne Bonn Airport installs carbon counters for passengers to offset their flight CO2 emissions
Kathrin Dellantonio of myclimate and Michael Garvens of Cologne Bonn Airport unveil the carbon counters
Thu 16 Oct 2008 – Cologne Bonn Airport has teamed with Swiss-based international carbon offset provider myclimate in a 50,000 euro ($67,000) venture to set up electronic terminals in the departure lounges of both terminals, which allow passengers to offset the carbon emissions of their flights. The voluntary donations will be used towards funding clean power generation projects in India.
Passengers enter their destination in the carbon counter and the internet-accessed emission calculator works out the amount of CO2 the trip will accrue and the proportionate costs per passenger to mitigate the emissions in a developing country like India. The voluntary donation, which can be adjusted upwards or downwards as the passenger sees fit, can be made at the counter through a credit card. The passenger also has the option of donating online through the airport’s website before or after the trip.
A one-way economy class flight from Cologne/Bonn to Berlin works out at €6 ($8), to Majorca €9 ($12) and to New York €33 ($44). The airport itself will offset the business journeys of its staff through myclimate.
“Reducing CO2 emissions is a global challenge, something the entire aviation industry will have to face,” announced the airport’s CEO, Michael Garvens. “Cologne Bonn Airport is well aware of its responsibility and is willing to make a genuine contribution to this effort. We are the first German airport to offer our passengers the opportunity of actively participating in climate protection now by offsetting their flight carbon emissions.”
The two projects that donations will help fund are in the Indian state of Bihar and the southern Indian region of Karnataka. The Bihar project operates several biomass gasification power stations to produce electricity, with a long term aim of replacing emission-intensive diesel generators currently in use. It is expected that in 10 year’s time, 12,000 tonnes of CO2 can be reduced per 100kW-power station. In Karnataka, biomass from agricultural waste will be used for electricity and heat generation, and myclimate hopes that around 160,000 tonnes of CO2 could be saved over a period of seven years.
Myclimate also has carbon offset agreements with Geneva International Airport as well as with airlines including Lufthansa, Swiss International Air Lines, Virgin Atlantic and TUIfly. The not-for-profit organization was recently voted in the top three of 170 carbon offset providers in the ENDS Carbon Offsets Guide 2008, and Tufts University of the USA, in its Tufts Climate Initiative, rated myclimate “an excellent choice for offsetting air travel emissions”.
