IATA Carbon Offset Program

A pragmatic way to limit climate change impact

There is no alternative to aviation when it comes to long distance and low carbon travel. Carbon offsetting can therefore be seen as an immediate, direct and pragmatic means to encourage action to limit climate change impacts, at least in the short-term.

What is carbon offsetting concretely? Carbon offsetting is simply a way for individuals or organizations, in this case airline passengers and corporate customers, to “neutralize” their proportion of an aircraft’s carbon emissions on a particular journey by investing in carbon reduction projects.

An IATA member offset program

Over 30 IATA member airlines have introduced an offset program either integrated into their web-sales engines or to a third party offset provider.

TAP airline wins UNESCO award with carbon offset program

IATA’s program brings both standardization to the process and makes it possible for airlines of any size to easily introduce a credible and independently validated offset program.

IATA’s carbon offset program offers best practice in the structure and implementation of carbon offsetting. Offsets are carefully selected and accounted for, and the issue of carbon calculation has been resolved by committing to the ICAO methodology supplemented with actual airline carbon data.

Aviation Carbon Offset Program Guidelines (pdf)

For more information, please contact the Environment team.