A security guard stands in front of HSBC logos projected on a screen during a news conference in Hong Kong March 6, 2006 where the bank's 2005 annual results were announced. [Reuters]

Holidaymakers, worried that jet fuel emissions are warming the planet, and firms such as Europe's biggest bank HSBC are also seeking to reduce damage to the environment.

"The market has ... exploded in the past 12 months," said Jonathan Shopley, managing director of The Carbon Neutral Co. in London whose clients include carmaker Honda and British broadcaster BSkyB.

"Carbon neutral" schemes typically invest in non-polluting wind, solar or hydropower projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America to offset emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil or gas.

Or they pay to plant trees, which soak up carbon by growing, or invest in renewable energy or energy-efficiency projects.

The aim is for governments, individuals or companies to prevent as much carbon emissions as they produce.

Once limited to a hard core of green activists, carbon neutral projects are winning wider favor.

"We're talking about millions of tons a year (of carbon dioxide offsets) instead of perhaps 100,000 a couple of years ago," Shopley said.

Still, the amounts are a pinprick in world emissions from human activities of more than 25 billion tons a year. Many scientists say global warming, widely blamed on greenhouse gases, could trigger more floods, droughts and heatwaves and drive up world sea levels.

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