Everything you need to know about carbon offsetting 🌳
Some information about transport and the environment
Transport is the second most polluting sector in the world, behind energy and electricity production. It accounts for 24.6% of total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Among long-distance passenger transport modes, aeroplanes are the most polluting, accounting for 2.8% of greenhouse gas emissions on their own. Although companies such as Air France have already made significant efforts to make their aircraft less polluting, there is still a long way to go before aeroplanes can be considered carbon neutral. This is the goal that IATA, the International Air Transport Association, has set for 2050.
What is carbon neutrality?
Carbon neutrality occurs when the amount of emissions released into the atmosphere is equal to the amount of emissions absorbed by carbon sinks (oceans and forests are the two largest carbon sinks). In other words, to achieve carbon neutrality, the amount of CO2 emitted must be equal to the amount removed over a given period.
How can we achieve carbon neutrality?
There are two main approaches to achieving carbon neutrality:
Reducing emissions
It makes sense. The most effective way to reduce our negative impact on the environment is to consume products or services that emit less (or no) CO2 when used. In the context of long-distance transport, this means, for example, choosing the train over the plane.
Over a distance of 500 km, aeroplanes emit 130 times more CO2 than high-speed trains (115 kg compared to 0.865 kg). By way of comparison, over the same distance, a combustion engine bus (i.e. not electric) will emit 6.5 times less CO2 than an aeroplane (17.6 kg CO2e).
It should be noted that not all trains emit the same amount of CO2, depending on how they operate, or even which country they are in! For comparisons, please refer to the ADEME website, which we used to calculate the emissions of the trains, buses and planes we sell.
The development of carbon sinks
Reducing CO2 emissions is good, but it's never enough to get to zero. For example, over long distances, taking the train is often slower and, above all, often more expensive than flying. Not everyone can afford to pay several hundred euros to go on holiday to Spain or visit family in Brussels when they live in Marseille. Ultimately, it is sometimes simply impossible not to fly, if you want to explore the world or work in New York, Tokyo or Buenos Aires.
In such cases, offsetting CO2 emissions is a good way to continue fighting global warming. This involves absorbing the CO2 emissions from a particular activity to make its impact neutral over time. Today, some programmes and associations enable people to offset their emissions by contributing financially to the development of dedicated projects.
These projects enable the development of what are known as carbon sinks: natural or industrial areas that, through their activity, eliminate CO2 in the air by absorbing it. The two main carbon sinks are the oceans and forests. However, while reforestation (planting trees) allows more carbon to be absorbed than if no action is taken, it is not possible to create more oceans to absorb more CO2. Ocean fauna and flora can be maintained to ensure that their carbon removal activity continues to develop effectively, but these programmes do not constitute a compensation activity.
However, it is important to note that developing carbon sinks alone is not enough. Offsetting is necessary to absorb what cannot be reduced. These two approaches are therefore complementary and must be considered in the right order to effectively combat global warming.
And what about us?
When you book on our website, you can be sure that you are travelling with a company that is committed to two key areas: firstly, because we offer the widest range of ground transport options in Europe (train, bus, carpooling). In addition, our combination algorithms allow you to find unique routes that we often describe as cheaper or faster, but which are also more environmentally friendly.
Furthermore, thanks to our voluntary carbon offset programme, available on all the plane tickets we sell. For each booking you view, we inform you of the CO2 emissions associated with the journeys you are booking and allow you to offset them within a maximum of one year through Tree Nation, our partner association responsible for planting your trees in Nepal.
You can also follow the progress of the project and view photos of the people working on it on the Tree Nation website.