Google to let you know flights with lower carbon emissions

While choosing among flights of similar cost or timing, users can also factor carbon emissions into their decision, Google said.

October 08, 2021 06:10 pm | Updated 06:16 pm IST

Flights with lower emissions will be labelled with a green badge and users can sort the results to bring the greenest flights to the top of the list

Flights with lower emissions will be labelled with a green badge and users can sort the results to bring the greenest flights to the top of the list

Google will provide information on an airplane's carbon footprint in its Flights feature.

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"Beginning today, you’ll see a carbon emissions estimate for nearly every flight in the search results — right next to the price and duration of the flight," Richard Holden, VP of Travel Products, Google, said in a blog post on Wednesday.

While choosing among flights of similar cost or timing, users can also factor carbon emissions into their decision, Google said.

The emission estimates are flight-specific as well as seat-specific. Newer aircraft are less polluting than older ones. Emissions increase for premium economy and first-class seats as they take up more space and account for a larger share of total emissions, according to Google.

Flights with significantly lower emissions will be labelled with a green badge. Users can sort the results to bring the greenest flights to the top of the list.

The technology company plans to develop an open model for calculating carbon emissions from air travel and promote standardisation across the travel industry using this framework.

Last month, the company started new initiatives like finding eco-certified hotels on Google. In the U.S. Google maps have also started showing the most fuel efficient routes to reach destinations.

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