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Google Flights adds carbon emissions to travel results
October 11th 2021
Travel tool, Google Flights, has begun estimating carbon emissions for flights in its search results. Read More » The tech giant says the new feature will help environmentally conscious travellers sort flights via their carbon emissions as well as duration and price. They can also compare the carbon emissions of a particular flight to the average for flights on that route. “These emissions estimates are flight-specific as well as seat-specific,’’ said Google travel products vice president, Richard Holden. “For instance, newer aircraft are generally less polluting than older aircraft, and emissions increase for premium economy and first-class seats because they take up more space and account for a larger share of total emissions. To put these estimates in context, flights with significantly lower emissions will be labelled with a green badge. And if you want to prioritize carbon impact, you can sort all of the results to bring the greenest flights to the top of the list.” The tech giant is arriving at its carbon estimates by combining data from the European Environmental Agency with flight-specific information from airlines and other providers. This includes data such as aircraft type, trip distance and the number of seats in each seating class.
