Through flight offsetting, can one fly as much as one wishes?

No. atmosfair is just a concrete course of action when a flight cannot be avoided. Compared to flying less, climate protection contributions are only the second-best solution. On the basis of physical reasons alone (contrails and cloud formation), the damage to the climate caused by flights can never be completely offset. However, if you have decided to fly, then atmosfair is the best option for protecting the climate.

By the way, atmosfair also shows how flying can be avoided in the first place. In many cases there are worthwhile alternatives!

Does atmosfair improve the image of no-frills airlines?

No because atmosfair does not work together with “no-frills airlines.”

Would atmosfair no longer exist if no one ever flew again?

Yes. However, not all flights are avoidable, and for the foreseeable future, they won’t be. If air traffic would become climate-friendly, atmosfair would no longer exist in its current form.

Why doesn't atmosfair offer an emissions calculator for automobiles?

Basically, atmosfair does not calculate climate protection contributions for automobiles, laptops, consumer or industrial products. In our opinion, saving through climate protection projects should always be a subordinate solution and not compete with the best solution (that means avoidance or direct CO₂ reduction).

With cars, for example, we see many good opportunities to save CO₂ emissions directly: drive a smaller car, drive slower, use car sharing, take the train and public transportation, use an electric car with Greenpeace Energy, etc. A comparison of airplane, automobile, and train emissions shows the proportions of emissions at a glance.

However, flight passengers have no other possibility of saving CO₂ except for avoidance. Through atmosfair, they are given the chance to offset the damage done by unavoidable emissions by making a climate protection contribution.

Can I offset my heating emissions?

The German booklet Pendos CO2-Zähler. Die CO2-Tabelle für ein klimafreundliches Leben offers practical suggestions to save CO2 when heating, even for renters, as well as for all other areas of daily life.

Does atmosfair sponsor climate-neutral projects?

atmosfair does not wish to promote the possibility of “offsetting” over the goal of absolutely necessary emissions saving. atmosfair will never offer “climate-neutral” products because on the one hand, the manufacturing of these products involves many steps that can hardly be quantified and on the other hand, there is a choice among different products that vary in their impact on the climate, from which the user can choose the most climate-friendly. If atmosfair offered offsetting for products for which there are better alternatives (and this is the case for almost all consumer products), then atmosfair would help these inferior products to have an artificially longer life and distort the competition to the disadvantage of ecologically superior alternatives.

Does atmosfair take off the responsibility for CO₂ emissions of its customers?

We don’t question the request of a customer for a specific product. atmosfair doesn’t see itself as the instance that judges whether a person considers an overseas vacation as more important for himself than another person may see a Black Forest holiday. Therefore, we do not distinguish between, luxury and baseline emissions or other classifications. These boundaries are not only fluent in today’s society, but also marked by value judgments that we want to avoid.

As an environmental protection agency we are interested in the CO₂ of the desired product or activity and the question whether the CO₂ is substitutable or reducible at the source only. From a climate protection perspective, we must ensure that the substitution or reduction potential is fully exhausted before compensation is performed, otherwise the compensation is counterproductive. We do not provide a label “climate neutral” to companies or private customers, because this would let false incentives for climate protection arise.

We do respect the compensation request of our customers. Private customers can judge only themselves on how the ratio of substitution or reduction to compensation is in their own case.

As a consequence of these points, we offer no simplified compensation, as we do for flying, for emissions of products or activities with existing climate friendly alternatives. We leave it to our private customers themselves to assess their CO₂ emissions, let them conduct their calculation and offset their CO₂-Emissions on our website as “direct donation”. The customer receives no certificate, according to which they e.g. drive a car “climate neutral”, but one with the amount of the compensated CO₂.