Travel companies have been warned to be wary of suppliers claiming to offer low-cost carbon offset schemes in a sector described as the “wild west”.
Speakers at Travel Weekly’s Sustainability Summit highlighted a lack of regulation and transparency of the voluntary offset market, with one speaker saying “most offsets historically have been bad”.
Andreas Slettvoll, chief executive of Norway-based climate software company Chooose, which has clients including British Airways and Booking.com, said around 70% of the global offset market was not transparent.
He said: “That market, if you can call it a market, is very similar to the wild, wild west. There is a lack of transparency, it is impossible to understand where the funds go and there is bad documentation of the actual climate effect.
“If [suppliers] can’t answer all of these with a straight face – this is where your money goes, this is the actual carbon impact achieved, this is the flow of funds – then stay the hell away.”
Matt Finch, policy director of environmental non-governmental organisation Transport & Environment, said: “The theory of offsetting is fine and offsetting done well is good, but most offsets historically have been bad.
“If you are looking to offset as an industry, as a group or company, ask [suppliers] what the project is, the duration of the project and what it is achieving, and if anything doesn’t sound right, it’s probably not a good offset and don’t touch it.”
He added: “The average cost of a rewilding project in Germany is €64 per tonne of carbon, so when you are talking about carbon offsets, that’s the figure you should have in mind. Not three or four pounds, it should be 50, 60, 70 pounds, and if it’s nowhere near that then you are in the wild west.”
Nico Nicholas, chief executive of Trees4Travel, said his company combined tree planting with investment in renewable energy projects to ensure effective offsetting, and agreed firms should do due diligence when considering suppliers.
Trees4Travel works with governments within the mandatory offset market and is working on decarbonisation of the NHS and the National Grid in the UK and US in addition to its travel partnerships.
He said: “We are not trying to decarbonise the world through tree planting. We are trying to help companies and people achieve their ESG (environmental, social and governance) goals through our tree planting, and the decarbonisation comes through our investments into renewable energy projects.”
Addressing the wider offsetting market, Nicholas said there was increasing scientific scrutiny of the sector, adding: “On the subject of carbon credits, I think it is important for everyone to do what they can afford, because if everybody doesn’t do anything, then we really are screwed.”
Finch urged firms to look for suppliers verified by independent third-party assessors and warned that companies’ best intentions were often undermined by chief financial officers’ desire to find the cheapest options.
However, Slettvoll said that in his experience the travel sector compared favourably to some others. “With our airline partners and large global players [in travel], there is an incredibly high focus on the quality of suppliers,” he said. “There has never been a question of whether we can get it cheaper. In banking, it is a different story, there is always a focus on the cost.”