Witty subtitle here
"Airplane travel is nature's way of making you look like your passport photo."
Al Gore
Travel to and from Jersey is dominated by air traffic although in recent years passenger numbers have been steadily falling with fewer arrivals each year. The greatest decline has been in the number of foreign visitors to the island. The falling number of vistors suggests that islanders now account for an increasing proportion of passenger journeys by aeroplane.
While a certain amount of business travel is necessary to the economy, this only accounts for 20 per cent of journeys and the remainder of passengers appear to be travelling for pleasure. It seems that changing our leisure habits and reducing the number of flights we take would help cut carbon dioxide emissions significantly.
At a time when rising fuel costs and a growing awareness of the threat posed by climate change has forced many businesses to look at ways of reducing their emissions aviation continues to expand and is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK. Aircraft emissions are especially damaging because of the height at which they are emitted and the particularly noxious mix of gases that makes them 2.7 times more damaging than the effects of carbon dioxide alone.
Short-haul flights, such as the 324 mile round trip from Jersey to London and back, produce significantly higher emissions per passenger mile than long-haul flights. This is because more fuel is used and more emissions occur during take-off and landing than while cruising at altitude. While it is difficult to obtain an exact figure a single return flight from Jersey to London produces approximately 80kg of carbon dioxide*, the equivalent of boiling a kettle five times a day for a whole year**.
Beatrice Schell, spokeswoman for the European Federation for Transport and Environment said in 2001 that:
"One person flying in an airplane for one hour is responsible for the same greenhouse gas emissions as a typical Bangladeshi in a whole year."
And every year jet aircraft generate almost as much carbon dioxide as the entire African continent produces.
If you cannot avoid flying altogether and would like to do something to address the environmental impact, some airlines offer you the opportunity to offset your carbon emissions when you book your flight.
Carbon offseting is an attempt at a market solution to global warming and promotes the trade of 'carbon credits' between projects that reduce emissions and the companies that generate them. Projects offering carbon credits may be involved with renewable energy, forestry, energy efficiency or the reduction of industrial pollutants. The money you give to offset carbon emissions goes directly to support one or more of these projects.
Alternatively, you could contact the local charity Trees For Life who run a tree planting scheme here in Jersey. You can even volunteer to plant the trees yourself!
The voluntary carbon offset market is largely unregulated and lacks a single set of approved standards, so you should choose the projects you support with care. Some providers have been accused of making exaggerated or misleading claims about carbon reduction. Nevertheless, any reduction in emissions has to be a good thing and there are ways to ensure that your money is being put to good use.
Carbon offsetting is not just about trees. There are some truly inspirational projects out there, such as ...
If you would like to work out how much carbon dioxide your next planned flight will generate use the carbon calculator below. Simply enter your point of departure and your destination and the calculator will do the rest for you.
*Based on the DefRA figure for short-haul flights of 150g/km of carbon dioxide
** Calculated as (2 kW x 365 days per year x (3 min/60 h/min) x 5 times per day x 0.43 kg of CO2 per kilowatt hour = 78.47kg of CO2 per year)