Costa Rica: Carbon Neutral Airline Cuts Emissions

Carbon Neutral Airline gets on Board UN Scheme to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions

20 November 2008 – The world’s first carbon neutral airline, which offsets its harmful gas emissions by investing in ecological projects, has joined a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) initiative, promoting low-carbon economies and societies, the agency announced today.

NatureAir became the first airline to sign up to the Climate Neutral Network (CN Net), whose participants – comprising of countries, cities, major international companies, UN agencies and leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs) – have set ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets for themselves.

“With the airline industry contributing an estimated three percent of global greenhouse gas emissions – nearly as much as the entire African continent – it is vital that solutions to the climate change challenge come from within the industry itself,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

“I welcome NatureAir to the Climate Neutral Network as a trailblazer on the path to zero emissions air travel,” he added.

The Costa Rican airline made a pledge in 2004 to offset all of its carbon emissions for the protection of the country’s tropical rainforests. It is able to do this by purchasing carbon credits from the Government’s payment for environmental services scheme.

Costa Rica itself was among the first four countries to join the CN Net and aims to be climate neutral by 2021, the 200th anniversary of the country gaining independence.

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