Wizz Air flight offsetting

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Offset your flight's carbon footprint by supporting trusted climate projects.

OFFSET YOUR FLIGHT'S CARBON EMISSIONS

Calculate and offset your flight's carbon emissions.

Support certified carbon reduction projects.

Receive a certificate confirming your offset.

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THE CLIMATE PROJECTS YOU SUPPORT

When you offset your travel footprint with WIZZ you're supporting verified carbon-reducing projects.

The International Small Group and Tree Planting Program (TIST) is an innovative combined reforestation and sustainable development project carried out by subsistence farmers to combat the devastating effects of deforestation, poverty, and drought. The farmers plant trees on their land and retain ownership of the trees and their products, which is creating a potential long-term income stream, and developing sustainable environments and livelihoods.

Benefits:

7,787 tonnes of CO₂ is mitigated on average per year through reforestation/revegetation and sequester atmospheric CO₂ in live above-ground and below-ground biomass
22,998 indigenous trees planted from 2012-2018 which reduce erosion, stabilise and enrich the soil, and will soon be providing shade. In the future, they will provide other benefits, including edible fruits and nuts, medicines, windbreaks, firewood, and timber
Creating 81 jobs and training of local staff
The participants receive $3,937 in average financial benefits per TIST member, providing a new source of income
Health and sanitation training for 3,937 members including HIV/AIDS, malaria, clean water, hygiene, and indoor air pollution

The Pichacay Landfill Gas Renewable Energy project leads to a considerable greenhouse gas emission reduction in Ecuador. The project recovers landfill methane which previously was released into the atmosphere, and delivers electricity to the grid. It is the first landfill in Ecuador in which landfill gas extraction and electricity generation are applied.

Benefits:

The project leads to a considerable greenhouse gas emission reduction, as emission of landfill gas into the atmosphere is avoided
The captured biogas is combusted in an engine-generator set to produce renewable electricity, replacing fossil electricity production and thus avoiding greenhouse gas emissions
The release of landfill gas, including odorous compounds, to the local environment is avoided, which reduces the health risks of the affected inhabitants and the risk of explosions in the surroundings. This improves the living conditions of the directly affected neighbourhoods
The project has a positive impact on employment in the local area as a staff are needed to maintain the operation of the project.

“We are thrilled to offer our passengers a green choice of air travel. When you fly WIZZ you fly on a young, latest technology fleet that contributes to an ever decreasing carbon footprint while we are proud to have already one of the lowest emission rates in Europe”

Marion Geoffroy

Chief Corporate Officer, Wizz Air

YOUR ACTION COUNTS

The most responsible thing you can do for the planet is to reduce your environmental impact. With aviation counting for at least 2% of global carbon dioxide emissions, you need to recognize the impact your flying has on the environment. The solution is not necessarily to stop travelling but to travel differently.

At WIZZ, we have made it easy for you to address the carbon footprint of your travel. With simple steps, you can ensure that your flight's carbon emissions are being counted for and reduced via some of the best climate projects around the world. Your offset contribution goes directly to supporting CO2 reducing climate projects that are verified by the most comprehensive and stringent international standards.

HOW CARBON OFFSETTING WORKS

A carbon footprint is defined by the emissions of greenhouse gases associated with any specific activity or transaction. The carbon footprint of aviation is primarily made of CO2 emissions. Due to the wide range of activities involved and the fuel required, commercial aviation has a carbon footprint accounting for at least 2% of global human-induced CO2 emissions. Due to the constraints of current aircraft technology, all commercial flying today has an unavoidable carbon footprint.

Carbon offsetting is a climate action that enables individuals and organizations to address the CO2 emissions they cannot avoid by supporting projects - like clean-energy producing wind farms or forestry projects - that verifiably reduce, capture, or avoid a proportional amount of CO2 emissions. Said another way, carbon offsetting enables travellers to balance the carbon emissions released as a result of their travelling.

Flight calculations are calculated as a result of fuel burn, passenger load, cargo load, and an adjustment to account for adverse climate impact beyond carbon dioxide (such as nitrous gas and formation of contrails).

The calculations are performed at various precision levels:

By-distance uses emission factors from the UK Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
By-route is based on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) route average emissions.
The flight number is the most precise, applying specific fuel burn and passenger and cargo load factors for your flight (in line with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) methodology.

When travellers offset their carbon footprint, funds are applied to help support projects that reduce, capture, or avoid carbon emissions in an amount equivalent to that of their calculated carbon footprint. All of the funds are applied directly to the projects, with a small remaining portion used for standard administration and support services from Wizz Air's climate partner CHOOOSE; this fee is just €0.29 per PAX, and this helps to cover CHOOOSE running costs.

Carbon offsetting is performed through the purchase and retirement of third-party verified carbon credits, which are units of emission reduction used in voluntary offsetting programs. The carbon credits made available to WIZZ is called Verified Emission Reduction (VER) units, certified by the Verified Carbon Standard. VCS is a voluntary program where projects are issued credits known as Verified Carbon Units or VCUs, each equivalent to 1 tonne of CO2e. Due to transaction minimums, travellers will typically offset more than their calculated footprint — but never less. The offset price that the traveller pays is the total cost to deliver the verified offset.

TIST was the world's first dual validated and verified carbon offsetting program by Verified Carbon Standard and Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards. The project provider is voted Best Offsetting Project and Best Project Developer in Forestry and Land Use.

All projects that CHOOOSE™ make available to WIZZ travellers are subject to ongoing and regular monitoring, reporting, and auditing to ensure that they remain in compliance with these standards and operational best practices.

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Pichacay Landfill Gas Renewable Energy Project: Projects certified by the Verified Carbon Standard and by the Gold Standard must adhere to the principle of “additionality”. This means that the projects are being realized as a result of the funding. In other words, travelers are not supporting a project that would have been carried out anyway. The carbon credits are funding additional carbon mitigation. Often, projects are not financially attractive to investors without the sale of these carbon credits and would therefore not materialize.

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TIST Program in Uganda: The International Small Group and Tree Planting Program (TIST) was the world’s first dual validated and verified carbon offsetting program by the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) standards. It is recognized as a leading carbon offsetting program and has developed an award-winning monitoring system, using third-party verified standards to ensure carbon emission reductions are real. The TIST farmers contract to maintain the tree groves for 30 years in return for annual carbon pre-payments per live tree, and a 70% share of the net profits from carbon credit sales. Without such a financial incentive, not only the programme could not pay for all the costs required to grow and expand by reaching out to additional farmers, but farmers themselves would not have the incentive or the means to keep maintaining the trees for so long. In addition, farmers are achieving over $7 per tree of non-carbon benefits. After 5 years of tree growth, tree mass and the volume of carbon stored in the trees can be calculated, the carbon captured is verified to international standards, and carbon credits can be offered for sale.

Wizz Air is taking into account the full climate impact (Radiative Forcing; RF) of a flight in our offsetting program, not just the CO2 emissions from burning fuel. One of the more significant radiative forcing effects of aviation is caused by the contrail clouds that forms behind an aircraft when it reaches a certain altitude. Like regular cirrus clouds, contrail clouds trap heat radiating from the earth's surface, causing warming in the air below. They form in air altitudes above 25,000 feet when the air is moist and colder than -40 degrees Celsius. While CO2 accumulates in the atmosphere and has a long-lasting effect, contrails last for a matter of hours at most, and their warming impact is temporary. The impact from radiative forcing is estimated to 1.9 of the exhaust-only emissions (Ref. UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy) and is automatically calculated and included in your offset. The fact that we include radiative forcing is why the price of a Wizz Air offset in some cases can be slightly higher than you get with other airlines that only account for their flight's CO2 emissions.

To guarantee that your offset has a climate-positive impact, WIZZ has partnered with climate technology company CHOOOSE™. CHOOOSE delivers a platform that enables both individuals and organizations to easily connect with trusted climate projects around the world. Through its API for climate impact, CHOOOSE programmatically calculates your travel footprint and provides you with the option to seamlessly offset your journey through trusted climate projects.