How to Fly Less (Without Giving Up Travel)
How does flying contribute to climate change?
For many people concerned about the climate, how much we fly is a big dilemma and a challenge! Flying burns a LOT of fossil fuels, and is the single biggest source of climate pollution for most frequent flyers.
Family lives abroad, work demands travel, and social pressure pushes the other way.
"The plane's going anyway" is something you hear a lot, but does it actually hold up? In this episode, Kim talks to Ed about his struggle to fly less: the guilt, the trade-offs, and the practical alternatives he's found for family visits, work trips, and travel.
See SHIFT for more on other ways to travel, combining flights or flying less.
Strategies covered
Combining trips to reduce emissions, making fewer trips but staying longer, and other ways to maximize quality time with loved ones without it feeling like sacrifice.
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For more information and material from the episode, visit climateactually.com.
Funding for the first two seasons of Climate Actually comes from Formas, the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development, Communication Grant #2021-02906.
Resources
- The Man in Seat 61, an independent rail travel guide founded by a former UK rail industry professional. www.seat61.com
- Flight Free Campaign (We Stay on the Ground): https://westayontheground.org/the-flight-free-campaign
- Fly Less. Yes, You! We Can Fix It, August 2024 https://wecanfixit.substack.com/i/70289095/action-fly-less-yes-you
- SHIFT guide: Fly Less https://jointheshift.earth/climate-actions/fly-less
- Possible: Frequent Flyer Levy https://www.wearepossible.org/frequent-flyer-levy and
- The Rich Need to Get To Work: Why carbon footprints don’t matter for 90% of people (but they do if you fly). We Can Fix It, July 2021. https://wecanfixit.substack.com/i/38231014/facts-the-rich-need-to-get-to-work
- Carbon Ruins museum: https://www.climaginaries.org/carbon-ruins
References cited in this episode
George Monbiot popularised the term "love miles" for flights taken to visit family and loved ones, notably in his book Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning .
Source: George Monbiot
UK sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) mandate: Current UK SAF blending is around 2% rising to a 10% target by 2030.
Source: UK Government and the latest figures of current SAF use.
And a big problem is that airline use is growing.
Source: IATA (International Air Transport Association)
It is more common for families to get cars after they have kids.
Source: EJTIR
The charity Possible in the UK has a campaign to ban private jets as part of their strategy to reduce flying.
Source: Possible
Polling shows the first people to reduce flying shouldn't be one family holiday a year, or someone travelling to see family, but a frequent flyer or a private jet flyer who's taking their fifth or tenth or twentieth trip.
Source: Nature
Most flying, something like seventy to eighty per cent for most people is flying for leisure, not for work.
Source: Flight Free UK and Statista
There are all these kind of people flying around in their private jets all the time.
Source: Nature
Data show that it's the top one per cent of flyers who cause half of climate pollution from flying.
Source: Science Direct
Flying is one of the few sectors that isn't technically possible or ready to decarbonise.
Source: Climate Action Tracker
They're also often flying with older planes, which are more polluting, and not that full, globally planesb are less than 85% full.
Source: Nature
A large majority of people care about climate change, are worried about climate change, want to take climate action, are willing to take climate action. But they underestimate how willing other people are.
Source: Nature
It's so powerful to lead by example with things like flying less.
Source: The Conversation