Beijing, China - WWF calls on all overseas and domestic visitors to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to take the carbon neutral travel pledge through the bilingual Go for Gold campaign website: www.wwfchina.org/greenolympics. Starting on January 21st, 2008, individual travellers can make a significant contribution towards a green Beijing Olympics by pledging to offset the carbon emissions caused by their air travel to the Games. The sum of these contributions, including the total distance travelled and tonnes of carbon reduced by travellers, will be announced by WWF China during the Olympic Games.

Launched in March of 2007, the Go for Gold campaign is an initiative to raise awareness of reducing carbon emissions caused by Olympic air travel to individuals, Olympic athletes and National Olympic Committees. A number of tourists have already purchased their Olympic tickets and will soon begin their travel preparations, which include arranging air tickets. Offsetting air travel can be a simple addition to these preparations.

Most of the 550,000 foreign visitors expected at the Games will be travelling by air along with a portion of over one million expected domestic tourists. The total amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere can add up to hundreds of thousands of tons. But individuals can take action to neutralize or reduce their CO2 emissions by making smart energy-saving choices including purchasing carbon credits equivalent to their emissions to support carbon offsetting projects.

For all carbon offsetting initiatives, WWF supports the use of Gold Standard accredited projects. The Gold Standard Foundation evaluates and monitors offset projects to ensure the highest quality credits and most sustainable projects available on the market. Due to rigorous standards, Gold Standard labels are limited in number with only nine registered projects worldwide.

However, China is currently developing a variety of offset projects including wind farms, and hydro and biomass power plants. According to credible sources, a wind power project in Southeastern China is likely to receive Gold Standard accreditation in the coming days. WWF hopes that as Gold Standard projects develop in China, more carbon conscious individuals will be able to directly support these high quality offsets in the country.

For further information, please contact:

Tan Rui, Communications Officer, WWF China
Tel: +86 10 6522 7100 ext. 3813
E-mail: rtan@wwfchina.org
www.wwfchina.org/greenolympics

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Carbon Offsetting:
Long-distance flights are responsible for 2 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions each year. Offsetting your emissions means adding a price to the cost of a polluting activity, such as flying, driving a car, heating or cooling. The additional money is being invested in projects that reduce overall global emissions, such as clean energy plants or energy efficiency projects. Prices for one emission credit (the equivalent of 1 tonne of CO2 emissions) range from 5 to over 15 Euros. A roundtrip flight from Paris to Beijing would emit around 5 tonnes of CO2 for an economy flight with modest luggage and costs around 70 Euros to offset. WWF is recommending the following sales points for Olympic travellers as trustworthy: www.climatefriendly.com, www.myclimate.org, www.atmosfair.de, www.nativeenergy.com, and www.tricoronagreen.com.

Gold Standard:
The Gold Standard is the first independent best-practice benchmark for the Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation greenhouse gas projects, which was formally established in 2003 after long-term consultation with government departments, environmental agencies, private enterprises (including investors and project developers) and certification organizations. For more information, please visit www.cdmgoldstandard.org.



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