Does anyone offset their carbon emissions when they fly?

[TimeToPullMyHairOut]

Given the climate crisis I’m feeling extremely guilty that we’ve booked flights to Spain for our summer holiday. If it were just me I would not have holidayed abroad but my husband and 2 dc want to go and we have never given them a holiday abroad and they are very excited about it. I think it will be the last flight I do until a cleaner way to fly is invented (if ever!)
So, I’m going. What can I do about trying to offset some carbon emissions? Does anyone know anything about doing this? Does it completely offset your emissions or is it a drop in the ocean!?

I am curious about this. I recently planted (paid for) some trees in Madagascar. I wonder really, would they have been planted anyway? Are there government or international projects in tree planting quotas and the fact that some charity has just come a long and planted some just helped them out and the total planted will stay the same?

For instance, I know there are new targets in the UK for tree planting over the next 5 or 10 years... so if a charity raises funds privately and plants 50k trees would that mean just less for the government to do?

I’m hoping somebody who knows all about it might come along soon to help us!
I’d like to use my “donation” to contribute to either building renewable energy sources (wind farms etc) or towards research for a greener future

Greenhouse gas emissions from aviation account for just over 2% of the worlds anual total.

Cows, and agriculture account for over 18% of the worlds anual total.

I wish people would concentrate on the actual problem, instead of being distracted by the twitterati.

All the same. Flying is bad for the environment. I’d like to to what I can. I’m already veggie.

how can a paying a tax on something or planting 1 tree offset carbon emissions of a flight when there are millions of flights every year [skeptical]

I feel the same way. I offset my driving and flying emissions through a small charity called Temwa.
This is the dashboard they use link
I'm not saying that is the only route, but the charity, which works in Northern Malawi, emphasises working WITH the local people, and the funds are used for their reforestation project. Working with the locals means that it is more likely that the trees will be cared for, and the success rate is high.

I try to avoid flying but use gold standard.org for carbon offset.

www.goldstandard.org/take-action/offset-your-emissions

They were set up to define standards for carbon offseting to ensure it had a real impact.

I'd feel more guilty about having 2 DC if I were you. The carbon impact is massive compared with the odd flight to Spain, about 50 x more.

I'm sceptical about all the offsetting. Probably what's happening is that you're just making profit for the businesses who have got in on the tree planting ruse.

I have been thinking about this too, OP. I grew up in the Middle East and still have friends out there. I hate the thought of never seeing them again, but I also want to minimise my carbon footprint! I hope I can still fly out every five years or so, and offset the damage.

This article has some good suggestions:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48657582

I recently worked out my personal carbon footprint. It amazed me, as a vegetarian, how large my CO2 emissions were!
I had assumed (wrongly) that as a vegetarian my footprint would be fairly small. Nope.

I dont drive or fly but I do consume dairy. If I could drop that my carbon footprint would be minuscule!