Rethinking green flights

Stewart Barr, Professor of Geography at the University of Exeter suggests that this media report highlights the gap that exists in this debate.

“On the one hand, there are attempts to find technological solutions, whilst on the other, there is talk of restrictions or penalties. Yet we have a major opportunity to re-think what sustainable travel might look like by promoting and investing in international rail travel.

At the moment, international rail travel is regarded as being expensive, complex and fragmented, and there is a lack of investment in physical and booking infrastructure. These are barriers that should be ones we can overcome, to open up low-carbon holiday and business travel for many more people, and in doing so, enable them to have better experiences of travel.

So, the message from me is that we should be positively promoting low-carbon travel and doing so through fixing the problems that currently make rail travel unappealing.”

For more information find Stewart’s paper ‘Personal mobility and climate change’ here 

Stewart is on the Leadership team and is the Guiding Principles Lead on Sustainability.