Air travellers are increasingly interested in reducing the CO2 emissions of their flights. Finnair announced last summer that as of early 2019 it will start offering its customers a new service allowing customers to offset the CO2 emissions of their flights by funding emissions reduction projects or carbon sinks, or by supporting the use of biofuels.
Finnair has now selected its first partners for its offset service: For sustainable biofuels, Finnair’s partner will be the Dutch SkyNRG company and for emission reduction projects, Finnair will partner with the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO), an international financial institution backed by the Nordic states. Finnair will introduce the CO2 offsetting service to its customers in early 2019, and the service can be purchased through Finnair’s website.
“We are very happy to be able to partner with SkyNRG and NEFCO on this important initiative,” says Kati Ihamaki, Director, Corporate Sustainability at Finnair. “We conducted a survey on how our customers view CO2 emission reductions, and biofuels and carbon sinks were the preferred means for reducing CO2 emissions – therefore it was a logical choice for us to start looking into how we could offer these options for our customers.”
SkyNRG is the global market leader for sustainable aviation fuel and its biofuel, which is made from used cooking oil, is sourced at World Energy’s Paramount refinery in Los Angeles, California.
Finnair is a part of the initiative driven by Shell, SkyNRG, World Energy, San Francisco Airport and several other airlines, which aims to pave the way for a longer term, more resilient supply chain for sustainable aviation fuels, and thus supporting the industry’s common targets for CO2 emission reduction.
Flights flown by Finnair with biofuel will be determined by the uptake of the service by Finnair customers. Biofuel has a reduction potential of 60-80%, compared to conventional jet fuel, but its price is currently three to five times the price of conventional jet fuel.
“Finnair fully supports the industry’s common goal for carbon emission reductions. Advancing the use of biofuel is an important step towards our target, which is carbon neutral growth,” adds Kati Ihamaki.
For emission reductions, Finnair will partner with NEFCO, a financial institution established by Nordic Governments to finance sustainable green growth and climate projects.
Finnair customers will be able to offset the CO2 emissions of their flights by funding an emissions reduction project identified by NEFCO in Mozambique, where efficient cookstoves are taken into use to reduce deforestation and emissions.
Finnair is committed to the aviation industry’s common goals, which are to achieve carbon neutral growth by 2020, and to halve the CO2 emissions by 2050, compared to the 2005 level. On top of this, Finnair has set its own targets for CO2 emission reduction. Finnair reduces CO2 emissions of its own operations by using modern aircraft, by flying the shortest possible routes, by optimising flight speed and altitude, and by reducing the weight taken on aircraft. Finnair is also a part of the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme. The aviation industry is also committed to a global emission offsetting scheme (CORSIA, Carbon offsetting and reduction scheme for international aviation), which will be applicable as of 2019.
