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The world's freight forwarding industry is under attack by some environmental campaigners who believe that it is having a damaging effect on the global climate problem.

Over recent years the environmental question has moved higher up the political agenda. Moreover, an increasing number of people are starting to recognize that it needs to be taken seriously by everyone, not just a handful of eco warriors viewed as slightly weird by the majority.

As a result of this various green taxes have been introduced in a number of different places and concern for the environment was clearly evidenced by British Chancellor Gordon Brown's most recent budget.

Perhaps unsurprisingly therefore, the freight forwarding industry is coming under scrutiny. Many are questioning whether it could do more to become more green and in response a number of transportation companies are introducing *green* initiatives. Offset policies, for example, are, as the name would suggest, designed to repair some of the damage caused by forwarding freight. Companies adopting the policy invest a certain amount of money in environmental projects and charities every time they fly cargo abroad.

Although this is clearly laudable, ideally the industry should also aim to reduce its total carbon emissions. Certain reports indicate that between 4 and 7% of all carbon emissions produced by air travel, were caused by the air freight forwarding industry.

It is hoped that the Kyoto Protocol Agreement, which was signed by a number of major European countries will help to reduce carbon emissions. The agreement aims to cut emissions by setting limits for signatory countries between 2008 and 2012.

The environmental problem plaguing the world is not going to disappear overnight and will not be solved by the Kyoto Protocol Agreement and offset policies alone. However, both of these are important steps in the process needed to heal the planet and secure all of our futures.