400% increase in carbon offsets
You board a plane, but with a guilty conscience. More and more people are finding themselves in this situation, leading to an explosion in carbon offsetting.
400%: that's the scale of growth in carbon offsets in the first half of 2019 compared with the previous year. This figure comes from offset provider myclimate. On their site, people can offset their carbon dioxide consumption with money, which is then used to fund climate protection projects around the world.
60% of these payments are injected into offsetting air travel, which seems positive at first glance, with more and more passengers boarding with their guilty consciences. At the same time, passenger numbers continue to grow, as can be seen in the case of Zurich Airport. Does this increase then invalidate offsets again? "No, that's too easy," says Kai Landwehr, spokesperson for myclimate. "The number of passengers has increased less this year than in previous years. On the other hand, interest in other means of transport such as rail is growing."
Landwehr puts things into perspective, however, by pointing out that not enough people are offsetting their carbon footprint - less than 5%, according to estimates.
The environmental issue is a regular topic of discussion at myclimate.
Environmental issues regularly make the headlines in the press - especially since last year - with photos of dead fish and debates about carbon. And then there were "the school climate strikes - the famous FridaysForFuture - which once again caused a lot of media hype", says Kai Landwehr. This issue is not just in the headlines, it's also getting stuck in people's heads and raising a dilemma in its wake: that of wanting to do something for the climate without giving up comfort. That's why solutions such as myclimate offsetting are coming into play. We can only hope that this trend continues for a long time to come.
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