ANA Introduces Carbon Offset Program for All Domestic Flights

2009.10.23 Fri

ANA Group, a group of major freight service companies in Japan, announced on August 3, 2009, its plan to introduce carbon offset program for all domestic flights. The program has been in use for major flights from Haneda Airport going to the Japanese cities of Chitose, Itami, Fukuoka and Naha since September 10, 2009, and will be introduced for all domestic flights from October 1, 2009.

The program was designed in partnership with an intermediary organization called More Trees, which was founded by the Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. Through this program, passengers may offset the carbon dioxide emissions resulting from their flight by simply making a credit card payment on their mobile phones.

The program uses Japan Verified Emission Reduction (J-VER) credits created through a forest creation project led by More Trees and promoted by four local towns in Hokkaido to encourage forest thinning.

The J-VER was established in November 2008 as a credit scheme, in which the Ministry of the Environment certifies reductions in greenhouse gas emissions achieved through domestic projects. The forest creation project in Hokkaido was registered with J-VER in July 2009. This program by ANA group is the first attempt to use only J-VER as offset credits.

Posted: 2009/10/23 06:00:15 AM