Links for travel to & in the Netherlands although these addresses are believed to be correct, please be wary of domain name hijacking and domain spoofing before leaving credit card or personal details! By air: (to find out which airlines fly from an airport near you, try www.baa.com) Concerned about the effect taking an airplane will have on CO2 emissions?
BA -short for British Airlines- have a link to a site called www.climatecare.org , which enables you to estimate how much CO2 you’ll release during your flight. Easyjet offers an offsetting option when booking. For the return journey from London Gatwick the Amsterdam, I found that my contribution would be either 82kg or 105kg of CO2 for the conbined out- and inbound flights. Considering that the molecular weight of CO2 is 12 for the C, and 2x16 for the O2 constituent, I cause to be released 12/44 = 22.36 kg or ?? of carbon derived from jet fuel. This is usually called kerosine, a complex mixture of (cyclo-)paraffins, olefins and aromatic hydrocarbons having hydrocarbon chain lengths in the range of C9 through C16. These in general have two hydrogen for each carbon, hence approx. 26 kg or ?? of fuel. With a specific gravity of 0.8, this equates either 32.5 or ?? litres of fuel. My car -at a tad under 8 miles to the litre- would drive 250 or ?? miles on that, while the round trip takes some 645 miles.
Travel by bus, then? Based on a fuel consumption of around 2.5 km per litre, you’d use approx. 260 litres, so the break-even point would be eight or ?? passengers consuming the same amount of fuel, but only if it were a direct journey, i.e. no other transport required before or after. Supersites which promise to do the legwork for you include: Route Planning assistance: More about Climate Care: Adapted from the Climate Care FAQ: What is Climate Care Trust?
It is a company limited by guarantee, which has no shareholders. In return for the capital, management, office space and support needed to get the Trust going, it pays a fixed royalty of 10% of turnover to Climate Care Ltd, a company with a number of private individuals as shareholders. The purpose of this structure is to reduce the potential for a conflict of interest between the commercial and environmental aims of such an organisation. Climate Care is scrutinised by an Environmental Steering Committee, which includes eminent environmentalists and NGOs, including WWF and Forum for the Future. To ensure that the projects achieve the CO2 emissions that they claim, the Committee requires them to meet three criteria for each project, these are: - that a third party report be obtained
- that the CO2 reductions be monitored on an ongoing basis
- that any shortfall is made up in other projects
What about projects in the UK?
To avoid duplicating efforts to which the UK government is already committed under the Kyoto Protocal, Climate Care's projects are in the developing world. If it does a project in the UK, it is very careful to ensure that the emissions reductions are not 'double counted'. Where does Climate Care get its data for the CO2 emissions calculator?
British Airways supplies the data. A factor is calculated for estimating the CO2 emissions for a given flight or set of flights operated by British Airways.That factor reflects actual fuel consumption and load factors performed by the core British Airways aircraft fleet for the financial year 2004 to 2005. | 
