"We’re the first major airline to offset the carbon emissions from the fuel used for every single flight"
This was the announcement made by EasyJet, on the 20th of November 2019, but why would a budget carrier spend £15million on such an ambitious project? Is it too good to be true? Can you now fly without worrying about the impact of your CO2 emissions? All will be explained here.
| EasyJet A319 on final; by @josephtakingpics on instagram |
EasyJet Info
EasyJet has grown quite substantially since the airline was founded by Stelios Haji-Ioannou in 1994. In 2020, the airline will celebrate its 25th birthday since its creation. This low-cost carrier comes in 2nd, behind rival budget airline Ryanair, for the number of passengers carried in Europe. The airline operates a fleet of 334 Airbus A320 family aircraft (as of 04/01/2020) and still has over 100 A320neo and A321neo aircraft on order. In addition to helping cope with the ever-growing demand for low cost travel around Europe (to its 156 destinations), these planes will replace older aircraft which have a higher fuel consumption. Indeed, the new CFM International LEAP engines make the A320neo aircrafts 15-20% more fuel-efficient than the predecessing A320ceo family aircrafts. Replacing old aircraft with new fuel-efficient aircraft isn't only in the interest of EasyJet's emissions statistics, but also in the interest of reducing costs. Indeed, flying a more fuel-efficient aircraft means the airline spends less on fuel.
 |
| HB-JXA at Geneva; by @flyswiss001 on instagram |
The Airline's Announcement
"At 05:20 this morning, easyJet flight EJU5841 took to the skies and made history". Why did this flight make history? Well, this wasn't just a normal hour hop from Berlin Tegel to Vienna; it was the first EasyJet carbon-offset flight. Does this mean easyJet flights are now all carbon neutral?
Absolutely not.
The airline plans to invest £25million in 2020 on projects which either plant trees, or avoid the release of additional carbon dioxide. Instead of reducing the carbon footprint within the airline's operations, they are investing in projects to reduce emissions in developing countries. Note that I used the word "reduce" and not "remove"... It is practically impossible to "remove" emissions from aviation, unless you stop all flights.
| EasyJet special livery; taken by @josephtakingpics |
The aviation market is becoming more and more competitive, and removing flights certainly isn't on EasyJet's agenda. In fact, with all of the pressure from the shareholders wanting a return on their investments, the airline has to maintain or even increase flight numbers in order to make a profit; in turn emitting more carbon dioxide. Planting trees isn't really an answer: planting a tree won't instantly remove tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.
The average tree will sequester an average of 2.5 tons of CO2 annually (according to urbanforestrynetwork.org). A flight from Luton to Barcelona would produce about 43 tonnes of carbon dioxide (according to co2.myclimate.org). This would require over 17 trees to offset the flight. But bear in mind, EasyJet operates over 1500 flights every day; some flights are shorter and some longer than Luton to Barcelona. From the calculations I made, 30,000 trees would offset in one year what EasyJet produces per day. Planting 30,000 trees every day won't answer the problem either, as a small,newly-planted tree won't absorb anywhere near the average 2.5 tons.
- Here are a few projects listed on their website:
Forest regeneration in South America and Africa
This project would see investment in helping the local government and the local users manage forests responsibly. The airline's ultimate goal is to "slow and eventually halt deforestation".
| Easyjet A320; by @josephtakingpics |
Solar energy in India
"This project helps to diversify India’s energy mix, lessen the reliance on coal, and reduce the carbon intensity of the grid.". Here, EasyJet is investing in a project that will build an extensive number of solar panels in Tamil Nadu. Solar and wind generated energy is on the rise all around the world. On the other hand, fossil fuel produced energy remains a large part of energy production. Indeed, the extra energy produced by all of these solar panels does NOT mean that, tomorrow, a coal power station will shut down. The energy produced by solar panels will merely contribute towards the ever-growing need of electricity all around the world; especially in a developing country such as India, in which more and more people are gaining access to electricity every day.
| HB-JXR, gear up; by @josephtakingpics |
Community based
This is personally my favourite one as they are also saving people's lives: "In Uganda and Eritrea access to clean water is not always available outside of cities. People have to collect water from rivers and lakes (risking water-borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid) and then boil water by burning firewood to make it safer to drink.". The budget airline is investing in a project that will rehabilitate broken boreholes, which will provide clean and safe water. This means that people will be able to drink clean water, and reduce the amount of visits to health centres. These people now don't have to heat up their water to make it safer, which will reduce the amount of trips to collect wood to burn. This project on one hand prevents carbon emissions from burning wood, but also slows deforestation.
What are other airlines doing?
Many airlines such as British Airways and Air France have announced that from the 1st January 2020, they will offset emissions but on a much smaller scale: domestic flights. The two airlines also operate flights to all over Europe and the rest of the world. The carbon-offsetting measures that the two legacy carriers will be implementing are similar to those of EasyJet: rainforest protection and reforestation.
| AirFrance A318; by @flyswiss001 |
| British Airways A319 landing at Geneva Airport; taken by @flyswiss001 on instagram |
KLM's "Fly Responsibly" announcement
Air France's partner airline KLM's take on a more "sustainable" future in aviation, is a little different. In the extremely well made Fly Responsibly video on YouTube (watch here), KLM wishes for the airline, the passengers and the aviation industry to come together to find solutions for reducing emissions. Examples are given in the video such as, skype call your colleagues rather than travelling to meet them; travel by train when possible, and also offset your carbon emissions! The airline started this campaign in 2019 (the year the airline celebrated its 100th anniversary). You should also check-out the website (click here) KLM created just for this campaign which is very informative.
| KLM B737 lining up for take off at Geneva Airport; by @flyswiss001 |
Bottom Line
Flying without any impact on the environment, won't be happening anytime soon. We do have to applaud EasyJet's £25milion investment on reducing emissions. Unfortunately, it certainly will not be enough to resolve the issue, but most airlines haven't announced a single measure to reduce their carbon footprint. As much as this is perhaps just a PR push to make your holiday flight feel guilt-free, the real actions that will be taken, will never be enough to stop climate change alone. Although here at Aviation - Travel World we love flying, you should always try to do it in a way that will have the smallest impact on the environment.
My climate is a Swiss non-profit organisation that lets you compensate your flights. This organisation can not implement changes on an airline scale, but will invest in a carbon-offsetting project of your choice! Next time you fly, why not take a look at their website for further details?
*This article was not sponsored by myclimate.org
Social media
Other articles
BA Amex UK Blue and Premium Plus Review: click here
Swiss A gates Business Class Lounge Zurich Review: click here
Swiss Business Class GVA-ZRH: click here
Swiss Business Class Lounge Review Geneva: click here
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire