ResponsibleTravel company cancels carbon offset program

ResponsibleTravel company cancels carbon offsets

BRIGHTON, England — ResponsibleTravel.com has stopped offering a carbon offset program for travelers.

The company was one of the first travel organizations to introduce carbon offsets in 2002.

The concept involves offsetting the amount of carbon emissions created by air travel by inviting travelers to pay for the planting of trees or other actions that reduce carbon elsewhere. Carbon emissions contribute to global warming.

“We believe that the travel industry’s priority must be to reduce carbon emissions, rather than to offset,” said company founder Justin Francis in a statement on the ResponsibleTravel.com Web site. “Too often offsets are being used by the tourism industry in developed countries to justify growth plans on the basis that money will be donated to projects in developing countries.”

Francis said he agreed with a report by the organization Friends of the Earth, which called carbon offsets a “dangerous distraction” that create a “medieval pardon for us to carry on behaving in the same way or worse.”

ResponsibleTravel is instead asking travelers to fly less, take trains where possible or vacation closer to where they live, and to make lifestyle changes at home to reduce emissions. More advice and tips are available at www.responsibletravel.com/carboncaution.

While the organization will continue to promote tourism programs that support local economic development in destinations around the world, ResponsibleTravel is also now promoting more travel to the United Kingdom, where the company is based, and more vacation packages that do not require air travel.