Travel Policy

Why does Climate Focus have a travel policy?

Climate Focus staff travel globally for conferences, site visits, meetings, and events. This practice is far from sustainable as it contributes to air traffic and increases greenhouse gas emissions. In 2019, the global aviation industry emitted 2.5% of carbon emissions from fossil sources and land use, and by 2050, emissions from international aviation could more than double compared to 2024 levels if the sector’s impact isn’t curtailed.

While accounting for the pure emissions from fuel consumption in flights is important, flying also releases a potent mix of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, water vapour, and soot. When accounting for the release of these pollutants at higher altitudes, the ultimate emissions profile and impacts become much worse.

Climate Focus has therefore adopted a travel policy that follows the mitigation hierarchy of avoiding and reducing emissions before neutralising any remaining emissions. Our policy involves a serious and sustained effort to reduce air travel; compensates emissions and supports non-for-profit initiatives fighting climate change. We mobilise support among partners and clients for this travel policy to reduce professional air travel among climate change and development professionals.

Cornerstones of the travel policy

The travel policy follows the logic avoiding, reducing, compensating air travel:

1. We minimise travel whenever possible. We rely on local staff or local partners wherever possible. Meetings and site visits are preferably attended by our team members living closest to the location of the event. We avoid any travel to the other side of the globe for a one-day event or meeting. We give priority to tele- or videoconferencing over traveling for regular client meetings.
2. We travel by train or share a car for trips up to eight hours, even if the price of a flight is lower and the flight schedule more convenient.
3. When air travel cannot be avoided, we will account for and compensate for the climate cost of the trip through a surcharge to the cost of the ticket. Climate cost accounting will lead to a surcharge of an average of USD 84 / EUR 84 per tonne CO2e on top of the airline fee. The surcharge will be passed on to the client and recycled for purchasing carbon credits and for supporting organisations that create awareness on climate change.

Pricing-in climate costs of travel

We determine the surcharge through a conservative approach based on a flight emissions calculation from Atmosfair, the market leader for carbon offsetting in Germany. This calculator accounts for multiple factors hat affect fuel consumption and uses a conservative estimate of the enhanced effects flight emissions compared to similar approaches. After measuring emissions from this calculator, we apply the World Bank’s Shadow Price of Carbon to translate the emissions into a price. On average, it comes to about USD 84 / EUR 84 per tonne CO2e. The following table shows the standard surcharge for different flight times. The surcharge will form part of Climate Focus budgets and service offerings. The surcharge will be applied to each leg of a multi-stop flight.

Supporting climate change publications and initiatives

We offer our clients an array of options on how we will use the proceeds of our surcharge with the goal to support a range of different strategies on how to confront climate change. We offer to:

• Mitigate travel’s impacts by purchasing high-quality carbon offsets from publications, such as the Kenya Biogas Program that promotes biogas as a domestic source of energy and Football for Forests initiative, that invests in reforestation in Colombia.
• Fund charities that recruit young people to fight environmental degradation and climate change, such as the Alliance for Climate Education in the US, Sinfonía Trópico in Colombia and the Plant-for-the planet publication in the EU. We are happy to add climate charities to this list in coordination with clients and partners.

Transparency and Travel Surcharge Allocation

Climate Focus publishes its annual flights and emissions on its website together with the overall proceeds and the use of the surcharge. Below are the organizations that are beneficiaries of our Travel Surcharge 2025. Each of the beneficiaries received approximately EUR 3,800.

• ACAF: ACAF works to advance the rights and participation of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in forest landscapes, while promoting inclusive and equitable resource governance in the Republic of the Congo. Since 2023, Climate Focus has been collaborating with ACAF on Projet Résilience, a community-centered initiative that promotes sustainable livelihoods for Bantou and Pygmy communities while reducing pressure on natural resources in and around Ogooué-Léketi National Park in the Lékoumou Department. The travel surcharge will be allocated to support ACAF’s organizational capacity building, specifically to enhance their internal financial management system as well as publication-level financial management and oversight. This support will improve compliance with donor requirements, increase the overall effectiveness of publication implementation, and reinforce the long-term sustainability of the organization.
• GANSO: GANSO supports farmers in Colombia to abate climate change while improving their production systems. This money will support GANSO team to continue building trusted relationship with farmers, providing technical assistance to farmers, developing farm and financial planning, helping them access premium markets, and continuing its mission to mitigate climate change in the beef and dairy supply chains.
• Khasi Hills Publication: The Khasi Hills Community REDD+ Publication is India’s first community-based REDD+ programme and protects and restores 27,000 hectares of cloud forest, in addition to preserving sacred groves and watersheds. The publication aims to slow, halt and reverse the loss of community forests in the East Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya by providing support, new technologies and financial incentives to conserve existing forests and regenerate degraded forests. Khasi Hills is a global biodiversity hotspot, providing habitat to many endangered species.
• QGIS Foundation: QGIS is a leading open‑source GIS platform used for spatial data processing, mapping, and geospatial analysis. It is developed and maintained by a dedicated volunteer community, companies, and organizations under the QGIS.ORG Association, which relies on financial contributions to support development, documentation, and user assistance. QGIS is an essential tool for non‑coders to process, analyze, and visualize geospatial data, enabling work that would otherwise require costly proprietary software.
• Save Life Gambia: Save Life Gambia (SLG) is a youth-led nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting road safety and reducing the alarming rate of traffic accidents in the country. Unsafe roads are a major public safety challenge and the cause of significant loss of life and injuries. The organisation is doing incredible work with minimal resources to improve road safety through advocacy, community engagement, and creative events. I have nominated SLG because by addressing road safety, they are also playing a vital role in promoting non-motorized transport such as cycling and catering to the needs of pedestrians. In other words, they are doing the hard work of addressing a root cause of climate change – the prioritization of individualized motorized transport. With the support from the Climate Focus travelsurcharge, the organization wants to realize two visionary publications: improving the signposting for off-road cycling roads and pioneering safe and tree shaded bus stops for bush taxis.
• Sustenta Honduras: Sustenta Honduras is a youth-led, non-profit organization that promotes climate change mitigation and adaptation through youth empowerment, capacity building, and community development. Its mission is to strengthen public participation in sustainable development in Honduras and the wider Central American region. Through an intersectoral and participatory approach, the organization connects technological innovation, strategic analysis, and community-based action to support a just and sustainable transition. Sustenta’s initiatives span multiple thematic areas, including air quality monitoring and environmental education, real-time data visualization, support for national carbon neutrality strategies, and the use of innovation and technology to advance transparent and participatory democratic processes. The organization also promotes circular economy models — such as transforming used cooking oil into new products — and strengthens local climate governance through youth engagement in sustainable energy and municipal development. Complementary activities expand access to environmental information and foster civic-tech publications like hackathons that connect students with environmental and transparency initiatives. Grant funding would enable Sustenta to deepen and scale these efforts, reinforcing an ecosystem of youth-led action that improves environmental data, strengthens community participation, and advances inclusive climate and environmental decision-making at local, national, and regional levels.