Etihad Airways has signed a service agreement with MASDAR, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, to purchase carbon credits for the airline’s voluntary offset program.

As part of the agreement, the expert carbon management team within MASDAR will help to support the voluntary carbon offset programs of Etihad in sourcing and retiring high quality carbon credits. These will come from projects such as alternative energy programs and energy efficiency initiatives.

Etihad is currently working on the methodologies for calculating the carbon footprint of its operations, including those from ground facilities and transportation. Once this is complete Etihad will develop a strategy to offset a proportion of its emissions to reduce its carbon footprint.

James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ Chief Executive Officer, said: “Etihad is committed to reducing its carbon emissions and to work with our colleagues at MASDAR on this important area of the business is particularly pleasing.

“There are a number of world class carbon reduction projects on offer in the Middle East region and the carbon credits that Etihad purchases through MASDAR will make a considerable contribution to these activities.”

Etihad and MASDAR signed an initial agreement in 2009 which has seen greater cooperation between the two Abu Dhabi-based companies with the aim of reducing the airline’s carbon footprint.

One of these initiatives is the sustainable bioenergy research project that was launched in January 2010. The project, which is also supported by Boeing and Honeywell’s UOP, will look at the use of integrated saltwater agricultural systems to support the development and commercialisation of biofuel for aviation and co-products.
 

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