1. Preliminary remarks

The non-profit organisation atmosfair gGmbH provides the opportunity to contribute directly to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. For this purpose, it invests in appropriate climate protection projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The reductions effected by these projects are verified on behalf of atmosfair. atmosfair obtains the official certificates (Certified Emission Reductions (CER)), according to art. 12 of the Kyoto Protocol. These additionally meet the voluntary so called “CDM Gold Standard” of the international environmental NGOs. Depending on your donation, you contribute to a certain amount of emission reduction in a climate protection project.

You have the possibility to directly adjust your donation to the emissions caused by your flight. The emissions calculator allows for the determination of the emissions caused by your flight. While it works highly differentiated, it also applies default and average values that might potentially differ from the actually produced emissions and their effects on climate in their precise amount.

2. Utilisation of your donations

After deducting marketing and administrative expenses in the amount of ca. 5% of the revenues (average of the past 5 years), atmosfair uses your donations to achieve emission reduction in the selected projects.

Despite the fact that atomsfair only selects projects whose partners are regarded as trustworthy, a partner’s definite success in reducing emissions can not be guaranteed by atmosfair. If it turns out that a project fails to effect emission reductions as agreed, atmosfair will use your donation for investment into another project. atmosfair will stop supporting projects that fail to comply with their obligations, e.g. the Gold Standard. In order to avoid the loss of money, atmosfair will conclude contracts to these effects with the project eveloper. The validation and verification of the projects are effected by UN-accredited monitoring organisations (operational entities, such as the German TÜV) for whose activities atmosfair is not liable.

atmosfair gGmbH uses your contributions promptly in the offsetting projects. It undertakes to achieve the CO₂ reductions you have commissioned and to retire the corresponding CO₂ certificates no later than 24 months after receipt of your payment. This means that offsetting has then both physically taken place and been formally verified and documented. More and up-to-date details on these processes and their durations in our offsetting projects can be found regularly in the atmosfair annual reports, which you can find on our homepage.

The validation of the projects is carried out by UN-accredited auditing organizations (Designated Operational Entities, DoE) such as the German TÜV. By accepting donations, atmosfair gGmbH commits itself to offset the exact amount of greenhouse gases as set by the donor through climate change mitigation projects under CDM and Gold Standard. Only to the extent of less than 5% of the total CO2 reduction volume and to set up and test new project forms atmosfair can renounce the CDM as standard and use only Gold Standard registered projects.

atmosfair processes the formal evidence of successful CO2 savings through CDM projects by cancellation of the DoE verified emission units in the official registry of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Should, due to unforeseen obstacles such as increasing project costs, the offsetting of the agreed upon amount of greenhouse gases with the specific donation minus marketing and administration costs or under the above mentioned standards be not possible, the atmosfair gGmbH will take appropriate measures from a climate protection point of view and shall state it in the annual reports.

atmosfair will regularly publish an overview of the overall donations received and the overall savings effected, at least in its annual report. Upon request, it gives access to its account at the official German registry account, where it stores permanentely the certificates on the emission reductions accomplished in the projects. Rights to information with regard to individual business transactions beyond this level do not exist.

Until the commencement of business by atmosfair, the forum anders reisen e.V. held your donations as trustee. The forum directly transferred the donations in your name to atmosfair.

3. Certificates of emission reduction, no personal claim to the receipt of certificates

The credits for emission reduction issued by the project partners constitute certificates in terms of emission trading. They are accepted by atmosfair and transferred into the cancellationj account in the German registry. This is the formal proof that the emission reductions have been truly effected to the benefit of the climate. A personal claim to receive or purchase personal emission reduction certificates from atmosfair or to use them in any other way does in no way exist by making your donation.

4. Disclaimer

atmosfair is not liable for the correctness of information provided to you by the monitoring organisation (operational entities) or the project partners and declarations with regard to produced emissions and achieved reductions of emissions as well as other project information. Neither it is liable for the advent of reduction of a definitely provable amount of greenhouse gas emissions, but contributes to the reduction of emissions within the scope of the projects described in number 1. The responsibility for the proof of the emissions savings lies ultimatively with the accrediatted operational entites.

5. Choice of law

German law applies to all legal relationships between you and atmosfair resulting from your donation to the promotion of climate protection.

6. Copyrights

The documents distributed to you contain copyrighted material. You are in no way allowed to edit, rearrange, publish, distribute, send, exhibit, copy these documents neither on the whole nor in parts, to participate in their disposal or transfer or to economically utilise them in any other way. You are authorised to make one (1) copy of the protected material for private use only.

7. SEPA direct debit

If the customer pays by SEPA direct debit, atmosfair will normally withdray the money from the stated bank account after five days or within the three up-following days.

8. Tax-deductibility

Since 1 September 2005, atmosfair is acknowledged as a non-profit organisation and has the right to issue recognised donation receipts. Thus, donations made after this date are deductible from your taxable income at German tax offices and as a consequence decrease your income tax.

9. Severability clause

Beyond these terms and conditions, there are no further agreements between you and atmosfair. All residual statements in the documents distributed or made accessible to you are directly related to these terms and conditions or explain them, but without changing or complementing them. Inefficacy of one regulation of these terms and conditions does in no way affect the residual ones; they are to be complemented in the way that the intention of the parties expressed in the non-effective regulation is realised at best.

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