TreeSmart for Air Travellers
One of the "sleeping giants" in CO2 emissions is air travel. While domestic air travel generates only about 6% of current transport CO2 emissions in Australia, it is the fastest growing of all the transport emissions and is expected to reach 10% within the next 10 years. In addition, international air travel (which is particularly significant for Australia, given its geographic remoteness) is not even included in current greenhouse inventory accounts, because it currently lies outside the Kyoto framework. However, for Australia, international air travel probably contributes more CO2 emissions than domestic air travel.
While aircraft generate large quantities of CO2, these emissions are spread over many passengers on the aircraft, so that the emissions per passenger kilometre are comparable to the emissions per passenger kilometre from private passenger vehicles. However, because of the large distances involved in air travel, the emissions per passenger trip can be substantial. Air travel also contributes significant amounts of greenhouse gases other than CO2. The TreeSmart subscription covers these emissions by using a factor of 2.7 on the CO2 emissions.
On a per-trip basis, a TreeSmart subscription for a one-way domestic flight from Melbourne to Sydney would be about $3.80, while the cost of a TreeSmart subscription for an one-way international flight from Melbourne to London would be about $65.00.
