carbon offsetting

I booked a flight today and thought I would look at offsetting the emissions. Very easy to do, there is a link straight off the travel agent I used to a company (www.cleanerclimate.com) that will offset the emissions for you. I'm assuming they are reputable if a major travel agency is advertising them. Interestingly the carbon offset has nothing to do with planting trees, instead it looks like they sponsor renewable energy projects and energy efficiency measures in developing countries subject to the relevant UN and international guidelines. Intriguing and I guess better in a lot of ways as planting trees doesn't immediately offset carbon, instead slowly taking it up over time.

Worth a look if you are planning to fly anywhere, my flight isn't far away so the offset doesn't really cost much at all. To head off any arguments about why we might offset emissions from flight rather than our other everyday travel I guess it is because flight generates so many emissions compared to other things we do (although I am too lazy to look up any stats). Its also a more unusual activity that we don't undertake regularly so a lot easier to offset than emissions from our lifestyle which we also have other ways to manage.