Although the organiser of the International Conference on Climate Change in Hong Kong does not require participants to offset the carbon footprint caused by their air travel, some of the overseas delegates have taken the initiative and done so.
Among them are two keynote speakers: Tim Flannery, an Australian science writer who specialises in climate change, and Heinz-Peter Mang from Germany.
The conference organiser said a tight budget had made it difficult for them to pay for offsets for all the speakers and overseas delegates from 26 countries. It might be a burden for some who found it difficult to pay for an air ticket and hotel accommodation to also pay for the carbon they had generated.
They thought of involving speakers through video-conferencing but considered it impractical. 'We just couldn't do it as it means the conference would have to be organised in a way to suit different time zones,' a source from the organiser said.
Mr Mang said his offsets would come from his adoption of green energy at home.
In an e-mail, he said: 'I do not know if the organiser is setting a specific carbon set-up for my travel, but for compensation I am managing a certain forest area in Germany as a carbon sink, in my hometown Boxtal.
