As of November 2022, British Airways introduced carbon removals for all its passengers, which will allow them to offset their travel emissions. The initiative is part of the company’s plan to reach net zero CO2 emissions by 2050.
British Airways has introduced carbon removals, a new service that allows passengers to offset their carbon emissions by purchasing credits from the airline’s platform, CO2llaborate, that has been created in partnership with CHOOOSE™.
The airline has already made the credits available to customers through its website and on board flights.
However, the airline’s move was met with criticism by environmentalists who say that increased flights will exacerbate climate change.
British Airways maintains that it is taking steps to lower its own emissions and reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.
Thus, passengers are given the choice between a combination of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and either carbon offsets or carbon removals as a means of reducing their carbon footprint.
We’ve included a brief walkthrough of the process with screenshots from the British Airways website, illustrating the difference between the two different options.
For the below example, we chose a round trip between London, UK, and Los Angeles, USA.
You can choose the most common ratio of 10% SAF and 90% carbon removals
By comparison, opting for more SAF and less carbon removals comes at a higher price
Similarly, passengers can set their desired ratio of SAF to carbon offsets, where, again, a higher ratio of SAF will increase the total price. However, offsets are still cheaper than carbon removals.
The new carbon removal program is made available for all flights. What’s more, British Airways has been offsetting all its carbon emissions on its domestic flights automatically for customers since 2020, by funding high-quality, verified offsets which bring additional social benefits for the communities in which they are based.
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The carbon removal program is provided in partnership with two carbon projects. One is the Blue Carbon Mangrove Project, which is a nature-based project in the Indus Delta Area in Pakistan.
The project will support greenhouse gas removal by reforestation and revegetation of approximately 225,000 hectares of degraded tidal wetlands with mangrove and other species to absorb CO2, stabilize the area and protect the coastal area and communities.
And the other is Freres Biochar Project in Oregon, USA, which sees the company’s biomass power production plant produce biochar. The process locks carbon into the solid material and prevents it from naturally decaying, locking carbon away and keeping it out of the atmosphere for hundreds of years.
“By choosing carbon removals projects as part of their action to address the emissions associated with flying, our customers are not only joining us on our journey to a more sustainable future, but also helping accelerate the development of the vital carbon removal industry,” said Carrie Harris, Director of Sustainability at British Airways,
Read more: Neste Has Delivered Sustainable Aviation Fuel To LA Int. Airport
British Airways now offers carbon removals for its passengers. I’m not sure what you mean by carbon removals? Do you mean that British Airways is now offsetting the emissions of its passengers? If so, then I would suggest adding a sentence or two about how British Airways is offsetting the emissions of its passengers. For example, “British Airways is offsetting the emissions of its passengers by planting trees in partnership with the Woodland Trust.”