As part of our commitment to being environmental responsible we have been a long-standing supporter of emissions trading.
This sits at the heart of our climate change policy as the most environmentally effective and economically efficient mechanism for addressing aviation’s CO2 emissions.
Another key part of our climate change policy is supporting the avoidance of deforestation.
We have actively campaigned for aviation to be included in global carbon trading since 2000.
We were the first airline in the world to gain practical experience through participation in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme, which enabled us to reduced our UK carbon emissions by 23%.
Deforestation accounts for 18-25% of global carbon emissions - ten times that of global aviation. What's more it's accelerating.
It is a widely held view that one of the quickest ways to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions is to reduce deforestation.
We are therefore involved in research aimed at developing solutions to avoiding tropical deforestation. A key objective is to assign value to standing forests through the development of market and non-market mechanisms. In addition we intend to assess the "forest footprint" of British Airways - the extent to which our operation contributes to deforestation.