Planet2050 Planet2050
1. June 2026

Lufthansa's climate protection portfolio: What the deal means for the market

Reading Time: 6min

The sector is responsible for around 2.5% of global CO2 emissions. When effects such as contrails are included, the climate impact is in fact considerably higher.

Lufthansa and other frontrunners are therefore taking new approaches: rather than relying on individual projects alone, they are building strategic portfolios. This allows them to tackle emissions that have so far been difficult to regulate.

This shift towards long-term structures is clearly reflected in the Lufthansa Group's new climate protection portfolio. This is where we at Planet2050 come in: we help scale these solutions and roll them out quickly.


Summary

  • The Lufthansa Group has updated its climate protection portfolio, which now comprises 14 projects.

  • The share of removal projects has been doubled to around 20 percent.

  • For the first time, innovative DACCS projects are also part of the portfolio.

  • With this, Lufthansa is sending a clear signal in favour of technology-oriented, long-term climate protection solutions.


45 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2025

In 2025, the Lufthansa Group carried 135 million passengers, an increase of 2 percent compared with the previous year. At the same time, the Group's CO2 footprint stood at 45.2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e). This corresponds roughly to the annual CO2 emissions of Norway - a country of around 5.5 million inhabitants.

The data underline the aviation industry's enormous emissions lever and the urgent need for new climate protection and financing models. In the previous year alone, total emissions rose by 16 percent (Lufthansa 2025 Report).


Four drivers of change: Why airlines need a comprehensive climate protection portfolio

1. Climate protection is mandatory for airlines, not optional

Three binding systems require airlines to pay for their CO2 emissions: the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for intra-European flights, the corresponding systems in the United Kingdom and Switzerland, and the global CORSIA system for intercontinental flights.

2. Costs are rising noticeably

Until now, airlines received free emission allowances. These have been phased out gradually since 2024 and have been eliminated entirely since January 2026. Airlines must now cover their emissions completely through purchased allowances - in line with the polluter-pays principle. This increases financial pressure and turns climate solutions into a real cost factor.

3. Technical measures alone are not enough

Airlines are relying on newer aircraft, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and more efficient operations.

But even with these, unavoidable "residual emissions" remain on the path to Net Zero, which can only be offset through climate protection projects and CO2 removal.

It is precisely this offering of CO2 removal certificates that Planet2050 creates.

Beyond regulatory requirements, Lufthansa has voluntarily committed to achieving the following goals:

  • By 2030, the Lufthansa Group aims to halve its net CO2 emissions compared with 2019 through reduction and offsetting measures.

  • By 2050, the company is striving for a carbon-neutral footprint.

4. Demand is growing measurably

Through voluntary offerings such as the Lufthansa Group's "Green Fares", passengers can actively contribute to climate protection.


Lufthansa Green Fares Programme


The offsetting payment flows directly into the financing of environmental and community projects in Europe and internationally. In 2025, a CO2 volume of 865 thousand tonnes was offset through such projects, by purchasing and retiring carbon credits.

Of this, 778 thousand tonnes came from customers - around 20 percent more than in the previous year — and 87 thousand tonnes from the Lufthansa Group for its employees' business travel.

The portfolio in detail

The Lufthansa Group's CO2 project portfolio comprises 14 projects, organised into the categories of avoidance (reducing emissions outside aviation, e.g. biogas plants) and removal (actively removing CO2 from the atmosphere).

The key changes in the Lufthansa portfolio:

  • Increased focus on CO2 removal: Lufthansa has doubled the share of projects for permanent CO2 removal to around 20 percent.

  • DACCS: For the first time, DACCS projects (Direct Air Capture with Carbon Storage) are also part of the portfolio.

  • Market direction: This signals a clear trend towards CO2 removal, long-term storage and technical scaling.

Nature-based carbon removal

  • Belgium: Soil Capital. Regenerative agriculture / soil carbon. Certified to ISO standards, aligned with SBTi FLAG and the GHG Protocol.

  • Colombia: Afforestation of approximately 76,000 ha of fallow savannah (including 8,000 ha of protected area). Gold Standard.

  • Germany: Klim. Regenerative agriculture / soil restoration with over 3,500 farmers across more than 700,000 ha (crop rotation, reduced tillage, year-round soil cover, organic fertilisation). ISO-based and certified via TÜV.

  • Italy: Regenerative agriculture using 13 evidence-based practices (cover cropping, reduced tillage, compost, biochar, agroforestry) for soil carbon sequestration. International Carbon Registry (ICR).

Technology-based carbon removal

  • Austria: Sonnenerde. Biochar from compost sieve residues through pyrolysis under oxygen deprivation.

  • Bolivia: Exomad Green. Biochar through pyrolysis from sustainable forestry residues (world's largest biochar removal project), permanence over 1,000 years. Puro.Earth

  • Iceland: Climeworks "Mammoth". Direct Air Capture and Storage (DACCS), CO2 is mineralised underground in rock, operational since May 2024.

  • India: Varaha. Community-led biochar project using high-temperature pyrolysis (one of the world's largest). Carbon Standard International (CSI).

  • Switzerland: Recoal. Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage (BiCRS) via hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) of biomass residues. Rainbow Standard.

  • USA: 1PointFive "STRATOS". Direct Air Carbon Capture and Sequestration (DACCS), permanent underground storage. Proprietary DAC methodology under the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) MRV programme.

Avoidance projects

  • India: Sistema.bio. Modular biodigesters for smallholder farmers, converting animal manure into biogas (for cooking and operating appliances) and organic biofertiliser. Gold Standard.

  • Kenya: Efficient cookstoves for rural communities in the Siaya region, financed through savings and credit groups (CSL); reduces firewood demand and protects local forests. Gold Standard.

  • Mongolia: MicroEnergyCredits (with XacBank). Efficient stoves and home insulation via microfinancing for low-income households; over 160,000 households since 2009, improved air quality in Ulaanbaatar. Gold Standard.

  • Uganda: Distribution of energy-efficient, durable cookstoves with up to 50% fuel savings; over 1.2 million stoves sold to date, reaching more than 6 million people. Gold Standard.

Link of the Portfolio.


"Climate protection projects, as a complement to our own emissions reduction measures, are an important building block on the path to more sustainable aviation and to achieving our climate goals. With our carefully assembled portfolio, we are placing a stronger focus on technology-based projects with long-term CO2 sequestration. In doing so, we are contributing to the further development and scaling of these technologies."

Nina Sproedt, Head of Sustainability at the Lufthansa Group.

Planet2050: The bridge between quality and capital markets

"It is precisely this market development - away from individual projects towards compliance-capable, diversified portfolios - that is the reason why we at Planet2050 are building a dedicated carbon finance infrastructure platform. We see ourselves as a bridge between project quality and capital market logic, in order to scale the urgently needed climate protection solutions," says Lucas Zaehringer, CEO of Planet2050.

The deal as a market signal

The Lufthansa approach is a clear market signal: when large companies build portfolios, the need rises for high-quality projects and for financing that makes scaling possible.

At Planet2050, our focus is on approaches that are increasingly gaining traction in the market: biochar, direct air capture, and nature-based solutions such as afforestation (ARR).

A rigorous due diligence process with 40 criteria ensures that each project is measurable, meets reliable standards and achieves long-term climate impact.

Through financing instruments such as offtake contracts, we create the planning certainty needed so that effective climate protection solutions can quickly be translated into scalable financing models.


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