The International Civil Aviation Authority is currently considering how it can continue to expand while appearing to address greenhouse gas emissions from flying. Predictably, for a massively polluting industry with huge plans to expand, buying cheap offsets looks very attractive.
Of course, offsets will not help address climate change. It’s a recipe for burning the planet – cooked up with help from Kevin Conrad and the usual bunch of BINGOs and vested interests.
In April 2016, more than 80 NGOs, including Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, put out a statement opposing the aviation sector’s carbon offsetting plans.
Now Finance and Trade Watch, an Austrian organisation, is coordinating a petition against the aviation sector’s plans. The petition is supported by around 40 NGOs, including Attac, Friends of the Earth International, La Vía Campesina Europa, Transnational Institute, FERN, and several groups struggling against airport construction projects.
The petition demands real action to address climate change that will reduce emissions from aviation rather than giving aviation a licence to pollute through carbon offsets.
It should be a win win situation.
@Brian Singut (#1) – It’s not a win win situation, because offsets allow emissions of fossil fuels to continue, which in turn makes climate change worse.
As I pointed out in reply to your comment about Kevin Conrad (where you used the pseudonym “Aviation PNG”), if we do not address climate change, the forests are going to go up in smoke.
While trading REDD offsets against increasing emissions from flying may be good for the aviation sector and for the consultants, bankers, and intermediaries that can cash in on REDD, for the rest of the planet it’s definitely not “win win”.