Why are carbon offsets voluntary and not compulsory?
Carbon offset programmes are a relatively new development in the airline industry. So far, these programmes have been developed by individual airlines in response to demand from their customers. They are still largely offered to passengers as a voluntary option because not all passengers want to offset their flights. Right now, therefore, most airlines believe that it is not appropriate to mandate carbon offsets although they promote them extensively and in some cases even offer the passenger the option to use their frequent flyer miles to purchase offsets. It should also be noted that the current carbon offset programmes are considered part of the “Voluntary Emissions Reduction” or “VER” category of offsets and are not fully recognised under many existing or proposed emissions trading schemes, therefore giving no carbon credit to the airlines involved. Carbon offsets have to be considered therefore as complementary to a worldwide emissions trading scheme for aviation, which is under a
