Ari's Planet

I was booking a flight with Virgin Blue, one of the discount domestic Australian airlines, to fly from Sydney to Perth. The booking page said I would be generating about 270 kg of CO2* and that I could offset this amount for a bit under AUD$4. The money would go to an Australian government approved abatement program. The link about the program brought me to Virgin Blue's Fly Carbon Neutral page. Here, it is stated that the money will go to either LMS Generation or to a Waste Composting facility operated by the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council. LMS Generation uses gases from waste to generate power. This, in itself, does not reduce carbon emissions. Their Environment and Safety page is just some boiler marketing speak saying that they care about the environment, such as "LMS is focused on utilising an organisational value chain that combines technology with experience to assist in creating a safe and sustainable future", but there is nothing specific about how they would reduce carbon emissions. The Carbon Credit Generation page talks about trading credits, but does not explain how they have reduced carbon emissions. The Southern Metropolitan Regional Council (SMRC) website talks about a Regional Community Greenhouse Gas Project. This project seems to actually be working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from part of Western Australia. They mention a couple of domestic education programs and provide links to two reports, Regional Community Greenhouse Strategic Plan and Cities for Climate Protection Business Plan. The first plan is from 2003 and states "The regional community goal is a reduction of 15% on 1996 emission levels by 2010. This amounts to reductions of 7,800,000 tonnes by 2010 on forecast levels on a ‘business as usual’ path." The second business-focused plan is from 2001 and seems to cover similar ground (I did not read the plans in detail). Their web page, which presumabely gives the most up to date information, states "Across SMRC we estimate 9,200,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent were produced in 1996 (our base year). ... Projections are for a 72% increase in emissions by 2010, due to a 50% regional population increase over the 14 years and increase in energy use per person. Through initiatives under this Project and the Regional Resource Recovery Project, we hope to curb this rise in emissions." This page, disappointingly, says nothing about what reductions in emissions they may have achieved through their program in the past 5 to 7 years. In conclusion, there is no clear explanation by Virgin Blue or these organizations of precisely how the estimated carbon emissions due to my flight will be offset through the money they would have charged to me and directed to the above organizations. Further, there is no clear explanation of how these two organizations actually would directly offset these carbon emissions using the money allocated to them. Therefore, I elected not to include this carbon offset payment when booking my flight.

There are real things Virgin Blue could have used the money for, by directing the money to an organization that really would have reduced carbon emissions. It is very disappointing to see them claim the mantra of environmental protection yet fail to deliver, even imposing a cost on unsuspecting consumers--either through this carbon offset payment or the time I spent finding out what would happen to my money.