Japan Airlines to launch voluntary carbon offset programme for its passengers in February
Tue 6 Jan 2009 – Japan Airlines (JAL) has teamed up with Recycle One, the Japanese agency of The CarbonNeutral Company, to offer its passengers the opportunity to offset the carbon emissions from their flights from next month. Instead of making the contribution during the online booking process stage, passengers click on a banner on the JAL home page, which links to a JAL carbon offset micro-site provided by Recycle One. Passengers can select from around 10 sustainable development projects worldwide they would like to support through their financial contribution.
The site makes available a CO2 emissions calculator so the passenger can work out the emissions from their journey, with the amount of CO2 emitted determined by such factors as the distance of travel, aircraft type, fuel burn, passenger load factors and passenger to cargo ratios. The class of travel is only taken into consideration on flights of more than 3,000km. Calculations are estimated amounts derived from the formula established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) (see article).
The suggested offset cost on a flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong is 1,500 Japanese Yen (approx. $16), based on 337kg of CO2 emissions per economy class passenger. For a longer flight to New York, the calculator estimates an offset payment of JPY4,500 ($48) for an economy class passenger (999kg of CO2) and JPY9,000 ($96) for a business or first class passenger (1,998kg). It is possible to offset 50% of a journey’s CO2 emissions or as much as possible for JPY1,000 ($11).
The UN-backed Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects supported are focused on clean energy technology and primarily wind power related.
The carbon offset facility is due to go live on February 3.
JAL says its decision to start offering the programme is part of the airline’s “ongoing commitment” to the environment “and in response to comments from customers who are deeply concerned about environmental protection and the prevention of global warming”.
On January 30, JAL is conducting a biofuel test flight in partnership with Boeing, Pratt & Whitney and UOP (see article). The airline is targeting a 20% cut in CO2 emissions per ATK of its fleet by 2010, compared to 1990 levels.
The CarbonNeutral Company is a leading international carbon consulting and carbon offsetting company based in London.
