EasyJet pledges to offset carbon emissions from all flights

EasyJet has announced that it will offset all flights in a bid to become a carbon neutral airline.

EasyJet will become the world’s first major airline to operate net-zero carbon flights across its whole network. The airline will achieve this goal by offsetting the carbon emissions from the fuel used for all of its flights, starting today.

Johan Lundgren, easyJet’s CEO, said: “Climate change is an issue for all of us. At easyJet we are tackling this challenge head on by choosing to offset the carbon emissions from the fuel used for all of our flights starting today. In doing so we are committing to operating net-zero carbon flights across our network – a world first by any major airline.”

The airline has joined forces with Airbus for a research project for the development of hybrid and electric aircrafts. This is an important step towards furthering the industry’s understanding of the operational and infrastructure opportunities and challenges of plug-in hybrid and full electric aircraft.

Johan Lundgren added: “I am therefore delighted that we have also announced today a new electric plane partnership with Airbus. We will be working together to identify the detailed technical challenges and requirements for electric and electric hybrid planes when deployed for short haul flying around Europe.  We hope this will be an important step towards making electric planes a reality.”

EasyJet plan to encourage both governments and industry to focus on technological innovation, most notably on airspace efficiency improvements and ensuring that the regulatory regime supports further reductions in emissions by incentivising more efficient flying and supporting innovation.

This comes after the Committee on Climate Change released a report stating that the UK Government needs to reduce aviation emissions by around 20% from today to 2050 in order to help towards achieving the net zero goal.

Last month, British Airways announced that they will offset emissions on flights within the UK from January next year. Customers on domestic flights will have their carbon emissions offset by the airline and invested in carbon reduction projects around the world.

Photograph: Anna Zvereva