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CBC News · Posted: Aug 08, 2019
How to book a greener flight
It’s summertime, which for many of us means hopping on a plane to new adventures.
Scientists calculate that a person taking one return flight from eastern North America to central Europe generates about the same amount of carbon emissions as they would commuting 25 kilometres a day for an entire year in a fuel-efficient car.
And it turns out that flight can actually cause twice as much warming as you’d expect from the CO2 emissions alone because of the nitrogen oxides, contrails and cirrus clouds it generates in the atmosphere.
All this has prompted teen climate activist Greta Thunberg, as well as many of her fellow Swedes and others concerned about climate change, to give up flying.
But not all of us are ready to skip the chance to see the world or attend far-off events like a friend’s wedding for the sake of the environment. And we may not have the option of taking a car, bus, train — or, in Thunberg’s case, a racing yacht — instead.
Ryan Katz-Rosene, a University of Ottawa professor who studies sustainable transportation, recognizes there are lots of benefits of travel and, specifically, flying. But he said the need to act on climate change “does warrant asking ourselves whether … a family vacation [that requires travelling] thousands of kilometres by plane is really necessary,” and whether the benefits of a given trip can be achieved without flying.
If you’ve thought it through, and you can’t give up a particular trip, there are things you can still do to minimize the impact of your air travel on the environment. Here are some tips:
- Fly economy. Extra legroom comes at more than a financial cost — a first-class ticket can generate two to four times the emissions of an economy class ticket because packing more passengers in each plane increases efficiency. Some airlines, like Sunwing and U.K.-based easyJet, offer only economy seats.
- Take direct, non-stop flights. Proportionately, more fuel is burned during takeoff and landing, so non-stop flights are more fuel-efficient.
- Take daytime flights, where possible. Contrails and cirrus clouds generated by aircraft trap heat, causing extra warming — but mostly at night. That’s because during the daytime, they also reflect sunlight back into space, counteracting the heat-trapping effect.
- Choose a greener airline or plane. Generally, larger and newer planes are more efficient. Among smaller, regional planes, turboprop planes generate fewer emissions than jets on average. You can usually see what kind of plane you’ll be flying when you book. The International Council on Clean Transportation also issues reports on which airlines have better fuel efficiency for Canada-U.S. and transatlantic flights.
- Consider buying offsets. Many airlines give you the option to buy offsets — that is, invest in projects that reduce carbon emissions, such as tree-planting or green energy. In theory, that can help counterbalance the impact of your emissions. But experts warn that offset programs are not always effective and may inadvertently encourage people to fly more.
When it comes to reducing the carbon output of aviation, avoiding flights as much as possible is still the best option. We’ll have more soon on how the airline industry can reduce its emissions.
— Emily Chung