Havering Friends of the Earth

The need to curb flying

by Ian Pirie; first published 19-Aug-2022

Vapour trails in the sky - John Robinson

We have recently suffered an exceptional heatwave, with fields and houses burning locally. Nationally, schools were closed, trains were delayed, and people suffered from heat exhaustion. This extreme heat has been made 10 times more likely because of global warming, and there have been more calls than ever before for something to be done to cut down carbon emissions. The challenge, as with all environmental issues, is to find practical solutions that will have effect quickly, but won't impact unfairly on those least to blame for the crisis.

One area where something could be done is flying. Although at present flying causes only a small part of human-produced carbon emissions - just over two per cent in 2019 - there are more and more flights. Yet 78pc of flights are made by a minority (15pc) of people. Many of these are celebrities such as Kylie Jenner, who recently used a private jet for a 17 minute flight! Together, private jets emit more greenhouse gases than the country of Denmark! Hopefully people like Kylie will be shamed into stopping unnecessary flying. Or, better, such flights could be heavily taxed or a frequent flyer levy imposed.

How else can we cut the damage from flying? There's probably not a lot of point in targeting the airline industry, since, according to charity Possible, nearly all the carbon reduction targets set by the industry since 2000 have been missed, revised or ignored. Moreover, since the end of the pandemic the number of flights increased dramatically and airports such as London City Airport (LCA) are seeking to grow. We are concerned about both the climate impact and noise suffered by local residents.

It seems to us that the answer must lie with governments who should be discouraging this growth. Sadly, our government wants to leave it to industry self-regulation (which has, as pointed out, failed to meet its own targets). Worse, the government's recently published "jet zero" strategy actually allows airport expansions and a huge increase in passenger numbers (an additional 75pc compared to pre-pandemic levels). It does identify a number of possible high-tech solutions, but doesn't acknowledge that there isn't time to see if they will work.

As with the climate crisis as a whole, something practical must be done, urgently.