- Email: [email protected]
Resetting offsetting
The leader
Resetting offsetting
AVIATION-IMAGES.COM/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP VIA GETTY
Properly done, carbon offsetting really can benefit the climate GREENWASH? The question may loom large as your hand hovers over the “offset emissions” button on an airline website. Can you really negate the environmental damage of a flight or other polluting activity by paying to plant an extra tree here, or investing in a solar panel there? Or is carbon offsetting just a fig leaf to disguise our embarrassingly tiny efforts to combat climate change? Yes and no. Carbon offsetting is no substitute for effective action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but well-designed schemes can be a stopgap while we seek ways to avoid emitting in the first place (page 20). Flying is particularly tricky because, as yet, there are few credible alternatives to fossil-fuelled flight. Let’s be clear. Jetting across the world is a privilege, not a right, and the best way to limit its
Tackling greenhouse gas emissions from flights is tricky
impact is to do it less. There can be no excuse any more that the importance of what we do somehow trumps a shared duty to take action. Governments, companies, NGOs, scientists and everyone else must at all levels embrace technology and actively work to reduce globetrotting face-to-face meetings. No one wants to ban flying altogether, but there are measures we can all take. Choose airlines with newer, more efficient aircraft. Cut out short-haul
flights: most aircraft emissions are associated with take-off and landing, and ground-based alternatives are more readily available for those distances. On long-haul ones, fly direct where possible. Shun business class, where emissions per passenger are substantially higher. For what’s left, there is offsetting – as a supplement to, not a substitute for, reducing emissions. However, the current plethora of often conflicting offsetting standards is doing the sector no favours. There needs to be more transparency and third-party monitoring of what counts as credible offsetting. Airlines, travel companies and others promoting offsetting schemes must also do due diligence on what they are offering. That way, we can all press the right buttons to help make a difference. ❚
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Display advertising Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1291 Email [email protected] Commercial director Chris Martin Display sales manager Justin Viljoen Lynne Garcia, Henry Vowden, (ANZ) Richard Holliman Recruitment advertising Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1204 Email [email protected] Recruitment sales manager Mike Black Nicola Cubeddu, Viren Vadgama, (US) Jeanne Shapiro New Scientist Live Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1206 Email [email protected] Events director Adrian Newton Creative director Valerie Jamieson Sales director Jacqui McCarron Exhibition sales manager Charles Mostyn Event manager Henry Gomm Marketing Head of campaign marketing James Nicholson Poppy Lepora, Chloe Thompson Head of customer experience Emma Robinson Email/CRM Manager Rachna Sheth Head of data analytics Tom Tiner Web development Maria Moreno Garrido, Tom McQuillan, Amardeep Sian
Chief executive Nina Wright Finance director Jenni Prince Chief technology officer Chris Corderoy Marketing director Jo Adams Human resources Shirley Spencer HR coordinator Serena Robinson Facilities manager Ricci Welch Executive assistant Lorraine Lodge Receptionist Alice Catling
Editor Emily Wilson Executive editor Richard Webb Creative director Craig Mackie News News editor Penny Sarchet Editors Jacob Aron, Timothy Revell Reporters (UK) Jessica Hamzelou, Michael Le Page, Donna Lu, Adam Vaughan, Clare Wilson (US) Leah Crane, Chelsea Whyte (Aus) Alice Klein, Ruby Prosser Scully Digital Digital editor Conrad Quilty-Harper Web team Lilian Anekwe, Anne Marie Conlon, David Stock, Sam Wong Features Head of features Catherine de Lange (parental leave) and Rowan Hooper Acting head of features Tiffany O’Callaghan Editors Gilead Amit, Julia Brown, Kate Douglas, Alison George, Joshua Howgego Feature writers Daniel Cossins, Graham Lawton Culture and Community Editors Liz Else, Mike Holderness, Simon Ings Subeditors Chief subeditor Eleanor Parsons Bethan Ackerley, Tom Campbell, Chris Simms, Jon White Design Art editor Kathryn Brazier Joe Hetzel, Dave Johnston, Ryan Wills Picture desk Chief picture editor Adam Goff Kirstin Kidd Production Production manager Alan Blagrove Robin Burton, Melanie Green
© 2019 New Scientist Ltd, England. New Scientist is published weekly by New Scientist Ltd. ISSN 0262 4079. New Scientist (Online) ISSN 2059 5387. Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper and printed in England by Precision Colour Printing Ltd
Non-exec chair Bernard Gray Senior non-exec director Louise Rogers
CONTACT US newscientist.com/contact General & media enquiries Tel+44 (0)20 7611 1202 UK Tel+44 (0)20 7611 1200 25 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ES Australia PO Box 2315, Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012 US Tel +1 617 283 3213 210 Broadway #201, Cambridge, MA 02139 UK Newsstand Marketforce UK Ltd Tel +44 (0)20 3787 9001 Syndication Tribune Content Agency Tel +44 (0)20 7588 7588 Email [email protected] Subscriptions newscientist.com/subscribe Tel +44 (0)330 333 9470 Email [email protected] Post New Scientist, Rockwood House, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3DH
20 July 2019 | New Scientist | 5
Resetting offsetting
AVIATION-IMAGES.COM/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP VIA GETTY
Properly done, carbon offsetting really can benefit the climate GREENWASH? The question may loom large as your hand hovers over the “offset emissions” button on an airline website. Can you really negate the environmental damage of a flight or other polluting activity by paying to plant an extra tree here, or investing in a solar panel there? Or is carbon offsetting just a fig leaf to disguise our embarrassingly tiny efforts to combat climate change? Yes and no. Carbon offsetting is no substitute for effective action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but well-designed schemes can be a stopgap while we seek ways to avoid emitting in the first place (page 20). Flying is particularly tricky because, as yet, there are few credible alternatives to fossil-fuelled flight. Let’s be clear. Jetting across the world is a privilege, not a right, and the best way to limit its
Tackling greenhouse gas emissions from flights is tricky
impact is to do it less. There can be no excuse any more that the importance of what we do somehow trumps a shared duty to take action. Governments, companies, NGOs, scientists and everyone else must at all levels embrace technology and actively work to reduce globetrotting face-to-face meetings. No one wants to ban flying altogether, but there are measures we can all take. Choose airlines with newer, more efficient aircraft. Cut out short-haul
flights: most aircraft emissions are associated with take-off and landing, and ground-based alternatives are more readily available for those distances. On long-haul ones, fly direct where possible. Shun business class, where emissions per passenger are substantially higher. For what’s left, there is offsetting – as a supplement to, not a substitute for, reducing emissions. However, the current plethora of often conflicting offsetting standards is doing the sector no favours. There needs to be more transparency and third-party monitoring of what counts as credible offsetting. Airlines, travel companies and others promoting offsetting schemes must also do due diligence on what they are offering. That way, we can all press the right buttons to help make a difference. ❚
PUBLISHING & COMMERCIAL
MANAGEMENT
EDITORIAL
Display advertising Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1291 Email [email protected] Commercial director Chris Martin Display sales manager Justin Viljoen Lynne Garcia, Henry Vowden, (ANZ) Richard Holliman Recruitment advertising Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1204 Email [email protected] Recruitment sales manager Mike Black Nicola Cubeddu, Viren Vadgama, (US) Jeanne Shapiro New Scientist Live Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1206 Email [email protected] Events director Adrian Newton Creative director Valerie Jamieson Sales director Jacqui McCarron Exhibition sales manager Charles Mostyn Event manager Henry Gomm Marketing Head of campaign marketing James Nicholson Poppy Lepora, Chloe Thompson Head of customer experience Emma Robinson Email/CRM Manager Rachna Sheth Head of data analytics Tom Tiner Web development Maria Moreno Garrido, Tom McQuillan, Amardeep Sian
Chief executive Nina Wright Finance director Jenni Prince Chief technology officer Chris Corderoy Marketing director Jo Adams Human resources Shirley Spencer HR coordinator Serena Robinson Facilities manager Ricci Welch Executive assistant Lorraine Lodge Receptionist Alice Catling
Editor Emily Wilson Executive editor Richard Webb Creative director Craig Mackie News News editor Penny Sarchet Editors Jacob Aron, Timothy Revell Reporters (UK) Jessica Hamzelou, Michael Le Page, Donna Lu, Adam Vaughan, Clare Wilson (US) Leah Crane, Chelsea Whyte (Aus) Alice Klein, Ruby Prosser Scully Digital Digital editor Conrad Quilty-Harper Web team Lilian Anekwe, Anne Marie Conlon, David Stock, Sam Wong Features Head of features Catherine de Lange (parental leave) and Rowan Hooper Acting head of features Tiffany O’Callaghan Editors Gilead Amit, Julia Brown, Kate Douglas, Alison George, Joshua Howgego Feature writers Daniel Cossins, Graham Lawton Culture and Community Editors Liz Else, Mike Holderness, Simon Ings Subeditors Chief subeditor Eleanor Parsons Bethan Ackerley, Tom Campbell, Chris Simms, Jon White Design Art editor Kathryn Brazier Joe Hetzel, Dave Johnston, Ryan Wills Picture desk Chief picture editor Adam Goff Kirstin Kidd Production Production manager Alan Blagrove Robin Burton, Melanie Green
© 2019 New Scientist Ltd, England. New Scientist is published weekly by New Scientist Ltd. ISSN 0262 4079. New Scientist (Online) ISSN 2059 5387. Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper and printed in England by Precision Colour Printing Ltd
Non-exec chair Bernard Gray Senior non-exec director Louise Rogers
CONTACT US newscientist.com/contact General & media enquiries Tel+44 (0)20 7611 1202 UK Tel+44 (0)20 7611 1200 25 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ES Australia PO Box 2315, Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012 US Tel +1 617 283 3213 210 Broadway #201, Cambridge, MA 02139 UK Newsstand Marketforce UK Ltd Tel +44 (0)20 3787 9001 Syndication Tribune Content Agency Tel +44 (0)20 7588 7588 Email [email protected] Subscriptions newscientist.com/subscribe Tel +44 (0)330 333 9470 Email [email protected] Post New Scientist, Rockwood House, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3DH
20 July 2019 | New Scientist | 5