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* CEO Lundgren: not a perfect endgame
* Environmental groups question offset scheme
* Airlines account for more than 2% of emissions, figure
will grow
By Alistair Smout
LONDON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - EasyJet's pledge to offset its
carbon emissions isn't the end of its efforts to clean up its
act, the budget airline's chief executive said, adding it will
look into hybrid and electric planes amid criticism the aviation
sector isn't doing enough.
On Tuesday, easyJet said it would become the first
major airline to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across its
whole network through offsetting of its flights.
Critics of such schemes say that paying to carry on flying
is no solution to ending emissions in an industry that has been
a polluter for decades.
The aviation industry accounts for over 2% of global
greenhouse gas emissions, and if left unchecked emissions are
expected to rise as passenger and flight numbers increase.
EasyJet boss Johan Lundgren said the plan to spend 25
million pounds ($32.35 million) a year offsetting emissions was
the "right thing to do" and such measures were being
increasingly demanded by investors and customers alike.
But he said that partnerships with Airbus and
Wright Electric to develop hybrid and electric planes, as well
as looking at operational efficiencies, showed that the airline
was not complacent in thinking that the battle had been won.
"We're not claiming here that we have the perfect endgame
solution to what we do. But there's a choice: whether you are
going to do something, or you are not going to do something," he
said at a news conference in London.
"It's down to somebody to really make a stand on this and we
are actually encouraging every airline to follow suit."
EasyJet said that it would undertake the offsetting through
accredited schemes, including projects to do with forest
conservation and renewable energy.
Lundgren said he had encountered the "flygskam" - or "flight
shame" - movement in his native Sweden, which has shone the
spotlight on the emissions that the industry produces and
encourages people not to fly.
International airlines have signed up to the Carbon
Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation
(CORSIA) to cap CO2 emissions at 2020 levels through offsetting.
British Airways owner IAG has pledged to offset its domestic
flights.
EasyJet's plan is more ambitious than both of those schemes
but faced criticism from environmental campaigners.
"Airlines paying others so that they can go on polluting is
not a solution to aviation's climate problem," said Andrew
Murphy, aviation manager at environment group Transport and
Environment.
"Decades of airlines' unchecked emissions growth shows
governments need to step up and regulate aviation's climate
impact by ending the sector’s tax privileges and mandating clean
fuels."
($1 = 0.7729 pounds)
(Reporting by Alistair Smout;
Additional reporting by Susanna Twidale;
Editing by Josephine Mason and Alexandra Hudson)
