THE Brazilian passengers are not ready to pay for offset carbon emissions emitted by their flights, according to two of the country’s largest airlines, Gol Airlines and Azul Airlines.
The cost for a passenger to offset the emissions of a Gol Airlines flight between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro costs less than 3.00 Brazilian reais (about $0.6128). The money collected is used to plant trees in the Amazon. Early experiments by Gol Airlines and Azul Airlines found that a tiny proportion of their passengers agreed to participate in the offset program, suggesting that Brazilians do not want to spend their own money to contribute to the compensation program. objective of “net zero emissions” by 2050.
“I’m not proud, but I think it’s important to say that when we started our program, the take-up rate was very low (0.01%)“, said Eduardo Calderon, director of the operations control center of Gol Airlines, during a forum organized by Boeing on sustainable aviation fuels. Filipe Alvarez, responsible for sustainable development at Azul Airlines, also announced similar results, with a very low membership rate.
“People don’t have a sense of commitment yet“, summed up Eduardo Calderonn of Gol Airlines. “Everyone likes to talk about sustainability, but when it comes to paying out of pocket, it’s not. Even in Europe, this level only reaches 4 or 5% for companies offering carbon offset options“.
