Intrepid Travel Overhauls Climate Strategy: No More Carbon Credits, All Flight Emissions Count
Photo Credit: Travelers taking part in an Intrepid trek in a mountain range. Intrepid Travel, Nepal, Poon Hill. / Intrepid Travel
Skift Take
Intrepid is confronting an uncomfortable truth: The gap between climate ambition and available solutions, especially in air travel, is widening, and goals and targets need a rethink.
Intrepid Travel says it is overhauling its entire climate strategy: It is scrapping carbon offsets, breaking with global standards, and pledging to count flight emissions that most travel companies ignore.
In an open letter seen by Skift, Intrepid's leaders write that the industry’s current climate efforts are failing and that “more urgent action is required” to keep global warming below 1.5°C.
Among the most significant changes:
• Ending all carbon offset purchases, ending carbon neutral status: They “no longer reflect the scale or immediacy of the challenge,” write Intrepid co-founder and chair Darrell Wade and CEO James Thornton.
• Exiting the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) framework, which doesn�