Until recently, I didn't give my carbon footprint much thought. I recycle wine bottles and buy LED light bulbs, but these things are a drop in the ocean compared to the impact of being a frequent flyer. For the first time in my life, I feel rather ashamed by the amount I travel. It turns out that my business class seat on a flight from London to New York is equivalent to the entire annual carbon footprint of someone living in Paraguay, at almost a tonne of CO2. Basically, I am f*****g up the planet.

Some are calling for 2020 to be a "no-fly" year, but frankly that's not feasible for me. I have, however, turned down several unnecessary trips (thank heavens for video conferencing), and I'll continue to be more discerning about the way I travel. Where possible, I try to take the Eurostar and onward trains across Europe. Private jets are impossible to justify.

But I'd like to do more. There's carbon offsetting, for a start. Some airlines are adopting this approach - planting trees to counteract the levels of CO2 being pumped into the atmosphere - with Easyjet offsetting emissions on all its flights as of November this year, BA and Air France offsetting on domestic routes from January, and Qantas offsetting on international routes from 2020 (it plans to be "netzero carbon" by 2050).

The worry is that although global aviation only produces two per cent of human induced carbon dioxide emissions (according to the International Air Transport Association), annual passenger numbers are expected to double to 8.2bn by 2037. By 2025, China will overtake the US as the world's biggest aviation market, followed by India in third place.

So what else can be done? Efforts are underway to develop biofuels, which are made from things like algae and salicornia plants, thus lowering the overall carbon footprint of flying as crops like this feed on carbon dioxide, but much of the world will continue to use fossil fuels. What's more, burning biofuels still releases CO2 so it's still only solving part of the problem.

You can try to fly on newer planes, such as the B878 Dreamliner, the A350 XWB or the A320NEO, which burn 20-25 per cent less fuel than older aircraft of a similar size. Booking economy class is another way of lowering your carbon footprint: the more seats you can squeeze on a plane, the less CO2 per passenger. The atmosphere still receives the same amount of pollution though, so it's really about easing your conscience.

More hopeful is the promise of zero-emission, battery-powered planes. Next year, Rolls Royce will test the world's fastest (300mph) all-electric plane, ACCEL. But it can only accommodate one person.

Easyjet is, however, confident that the technology will improve to the point where it can introduce 180-seat electric planes into its fleet by 2030.

Perhaps the best advice comes from KLM: the Dutch airline's CEO recently issued a statement asking people to "fly responsibly". I might have to ask my editor to rename this column "Infrequent Flyer" £ Scarlet Winterberg is a seasoned business traveller. There is nothing she likes more than sipping champagne while staring through an aeroplane window

(c) 2019 City A.M., source Newspaper