Compensation of CO2 emissions by air travels: an example

In recent years, several aircraft companies launched awareness campaigns, offering to their passenger the opportunity to known and also calculate their own per-capita CO2 emissions related to the flight they are going to make. Such campaigns permits to the passenger to pay a volunteer contribution in order to compensate their CO2 emissions. In this short communication, some programs undertaken by airline companies are showed. These initiatives are all characterized by a common denominator: the achievement of concrete, proved and verifiable results to compensate the aircraft CO2 emissions. Moreover, also a concrete case is reported as example: it is useful to show which is the per capita CO2 emission for a sample flight in Europe and, quantitatively, the amount of compensation measurements. Finally, this communication highlights on how the estimates of such measurements are usually miscalculated, considering that the capability of forest ecosystems to store CO2 are often underestimated.