A round-trip trans-Atlantic flight may generate as much as two to three tons of carbon dioxide per person. This is over one-tenth of the total annual carbon emissions (19 tons) by a US citizen from all sources and about one-fifth of a European’s emissions (10 tons). The growth of air travel, particularly in the rapidly growing developing world, threatens to increase the contribution of air travel to global carbon emissions and increase the current level of five percent.
To counter this, the European Union has sought to introduce a mandatory emissions-trading plan to force airlines to buy carbon offsets. However, this has been strongly opposed by developing countries as well as the US and a deal in the near future is unlikely.
Read more of this story at The Economist:
A business traveller’s footprint
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