Air Canada's carbon-offset program takes flight

Air Canada on Monday said it was introducing a carbon credits program to meet the needs of green-minded consumers concerned about climate change.

'We not only want to make it possible for people to make good environmental choices, but we also want to play our part in addressing climate change.' Charles McKee, Air Canada

The Montreal-based airline will be working with Zerofootprint to offer the carbon offsets, a type of voucher used to sponsor clean-energy research and projects in an effort to counterbalance carbon emissions produced byhuman activities, such as flying.

"We not only want to make it possible for people to make good environmental choices, but we also want to play our part in addressing climate change," Charles McKee, vice-president of marketing at Air Canada, saidin a news release.

"By working with Zerofootprint, we will make it easy for people to calculate the impact of their journey and mitigate those effects with a small, voluntary additional payment to support environmental projects that reduce greenhouse gases."

In January, U.K.-based Silverjet, the first airline to vow that travel on all its flights will be carbon-neutral, began offering service between London and New York. Other companies offer comparable programs for consumers looking to offset emissions produced by their cars or their homes.

Critics of carbon offset programs say they fail to change people's consumption patterns and encourage consumers to continue polluting the environment, as long as they make a financial contribution.

Advocates of carbon offset programs say they push environmental concerns to the forefront, encouraging consumers to be proactive. They say the offsets actively counterbalance emissions damage by supporting offset projects that include wind farms, tree planting and methane capture plants.