Carbon offsetting FAQs
What is carbon offsetting?
Carbon offsetting allows individuals and businesses to help compensate for unavoidable emissions associated with their activities by purchasing carbon credits generated from projects elsewhere that reduce, remove or avoid an equivalent number of greenhouse gas emissions. Without the revenue generated from the purchase of carbon credits, these projects would not be undertaken. Individuals and businesses are therefore helping to support these projects.
What is a carbon credit?
One carbon credit represents one metric tonne of greenhouse gas emissions avoided, reduced or removed from the atmosphere, commonly referred to as tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2-e).
How do you know the offset is really happening?
Once carbon credits are purchased from an accredited project, they are then retired, ensuring the carbon credit cannot be traded again, and completing the carbon offset cycle for the customer. Our Fly Carbon Neutral program is annually certified under the Australian Government’s Climate Active program.
How are flight emissions calculated?
Emissions are calculated using guidance from both domestic and international standards that converts the greenhouse gas emissions associated with your flight, such as aircraft type, distance travelled and litres of fuel used, into tonnes of CO2-e.
Why can't I choose where my money goes?
To secure a long-term supply of carbon projects that meet our internal requirements for integrity and quality at a consistent price, the Qantas Group purchases credits from a portfolio of accredited projects.
Does Qantas profit from customer carbon offsetting?
Our Fly Carbon Neutral program is a not-for-profit initiative. All customer contributions through Fly Carbon Neutral go directly to purchasing credits from projects that meet our internal requirements for integrity and quality, which remove, reduce or avoid an equivalent amount of emissions outside the aviation industry. Any credits purchased through Fly Carbon Neutral will not be used by the Qantas Group to count towards meeting our targets or the regulatory requirements.
For further information on offsetting your Qantas flight, view the terms and conditions
How do you assess the carbon offsetting project for integrity and quality?
We assess all the projects from which we source offsets against our Integrity Framework to ensure these projects meet our internal requirements for integrity and quality, which provides scrutiny that includes:
- purchasing from verified registries,
- due diligence and assurance from suppliers,
- ongoing monitoring and reporting,
- Investment Principles to guide carbon credit procurement for carbon offsetting, and
- Project Evaluation Framework to assess carbon credits procured against the Investment Principles.
Details of our Offsets Strategy and Integrity Framework can be found in our latest Sustainability Report.
Does Qantas use only carbon offsets for emissions reductions?
We recognise that climate change is a significant issue for the aviation industry. That’s why we're committed to reducing our carbon emissions by 25% by 2030 (from 2019 levels) and achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
Aviation is a hard-to-abate sector and carbon offsets will play an ongoing role in helping us to achieve our goals, even as alternate direct emissions reduction levers (such as sustainable aviation fuel, more fuel-efficient fleets, and emerging technologies) become more readily available to address our unavoidable emissions.