Why airline carbon offsets are mostly a sham

The global aviation industry, a major contributor to greenhouse gases, is aiming to reach net zero emissions by 2050. But the “net” in that commitment is misleading consumers and creating legal risks for airline companies, a new study has found.

Many airlines now offer their customers the chance to buy carbon offsets along with their ticket. The premise is that the money will go toward a third-party project that prevents an equivalent volume of carbon from reaching the atmosphere as the per-person emissions of the flight. But the offset credits that airlines buy with the money are mostly cheap and of low quality, according to an Oct. 10 analysis of eight European airlines by the non-profit research group Carbon Market Watch.