Qatar Airways’ Passengers Can Now Choose Whether to Offset Their Carbon Emissions

Qatar Airways’ passengers now have the option to voluntarily offset the carbon emissions associated with their journey at the point of booking.

Qatar Airways’ initiative is built on a partnership with IATA’s Carbon Offset Programme, providing customers with the assurance that the credits bought to offset these emissions are from projects delivering independently verified carbon reductions as well as wider environmental and social benefits.

IATA Director General and CEO, Mr. Alexandre de Juniac, said, “We are delighted to welcome Qatar Airways to the IATA Carbon Offset Programme. Their commitment underlines our industry’s determination to reduce our impact on the environment while allowing Qatar Airways’ customers the opportunity to lessen the environmental impact of their own travel. There is no alternative to aviation when it comes to long distance travel and carbon offsetting is an immediate, direct and pragmatic means of limiting the impact of climate change.”

Customers can opt in to Qatar Airways’ carbon offset programme when purchasing tickets through the Qatar Airways website and mobile application. Booking information, including information regarding the carbon offset programme, is available in multiple languages including Arabic, Chinese (classic), Chinese (traditional), Croatian, Czech, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.

Emissions will be offset with climate and sustainable development expert ClimateCare, through the Fatanpur Wind Farm project in India. This project has installed wind turbine generators (WTGs) with a combined output of 108 MW to generate and supply clean electricity to the Indian National Grid. The project consists of 54 wind turbines, installed in and around the villages of Taluk Dewas, Tonkkhurd and Tarana Taluk in the Dewas and Ujjain districts of Madhya Pradesh. The turbines displace electricity generated from fossil fuel sources from the Indian grid, reducing the overall carbon intensity and leading to emissions reductions. This project avoids 210,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

ClimateCare Director of Partnerships, Mr. Robert Stevens, said: “We are pleased to be working alongside Qatar Airways and IATA to retire high quality, independently verified carbon credits on behalf of Qatar Airways’ customers who want to take responsibility for the environmental impact of their flights. Their support for the Fatanpur project not only reduces global carbon emissions, it also provides employment opportunities; delivers improved education through providing materials and expertise to nearby schools; and supports a mobile medical unit – enabling improved healthcare to the local community.”

IATA’s Carbon Offset Programme has been approved by the independent audit organization Quality Assurance Standard, the highest standard for carbon offsetting which assesses how organisations calculate emissions, select offset projects and how they communicate this information to their customers. IATA is one of only four organisations worldwide to meet this standard.

See latest Travel News, Video Interviews, Podcasts and other news regarding: COVID19, Qatar Airways, Qatar, Emissions, Carbon, Sustainable, Waste.