World Wildlife Fund says athletes in the 2008 Beijing Olympics should be investing carbon emissions from their plane flights into a Gold Standard climate-change offset project.

"This isn't a high jump. We are hurdling towards a dangerous future if we don't dramatically reduce carbon emissions," said WWF China Country Representative Dermot O'Gorman.

WWF says long-distance flights are responsible for 2% of the world's carbon emissions per year. On average each athlete will cause the release of around 4 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in his or her bid to win an Olympic medal. In preparation for the Games, WWF is calling on athletes to be climate winners by donating the equivalent of the average carbon cost of their flight to offsetting their emissions.

The Beijing Olympics is expected to bring 10,000 athletes to China by air from more than 200 countries and regions and, together with thousands of spectators, the event will inject hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon into the atmosphere. WWF is working with the wholesale and retail offset business to develop an opportunity for athletes, supporters, the media and anyone else planning to travel to the Games so they can easily enter their journey details, calculate their relevant CO2 emission through a carbon calculator, and donate to a Gold Standard project such as a wind farm, solar power station or other energy efficiency projects.

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 and certification organizations.