Air travel is one of the most greenhouse gas emitting activities that many people do.

As a rule of thumb each individual generates one tonne of CO2 for every 4 hours of flying or 310g per kilometre travelled. Business or first class passengers are responsible for much greater levels of CO2 due to the extra space per passenger that they occupy in an aircraft.

The UK Committee on Climate Change states that if the world is to keep within the Paris Climate Accord of less than 2 degrees of warming then the average carbon emissions per person needs to reduce to two tonnes per annum by 2050. However, currently, a return trip from Auckland to Sydney adds 816 kgs of climate warming emissions, a return trip to Bali 2.5 tonnes and a return trip to London 7 tonnes.

What can you do?

Is that next business trip really necessary> Maybe you can achieve the same outcome by using video conferencing. If you do need to fly, consider purchasing a carbon offset to neutralise the impact of your flight.

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