Brits love to travel. Roughly 1 in 12 international passengers came from the UK in 2018, more than any other nationality. But aviation is the fastest growing cause of the climate crisis and currently excluded from all Government plans to reduce our emissions by the way too far off goal of 2050. So in the absence of any sensible government policy to protect us from wildfires, floods, droughts and the associated widespread famine and disease, what can we do?

Carbon offsetting has no scientific legitimacy. Only 2% of offsets have been effective and the others are legendary in their fairy tale thinking. One famous British airline allows you to pay to protect an already existing forest or swap cookstoves for people in poverty to burn cleaner fuel instead of, you know, just cleaning up our own act and reducing emissions right here where it really counts.

We do need a trillion more trees so please do plant a tree but not in exchange for pumping more carbon dioxide into our atmosphere.

Aviation was responsible for 7% of the UK’s total Greenhouse emissions in 2017 and it is projected to be the biggest single source of emissions in the UK by 2050 due to increasing demand. But all is not what it seems.

Business flights are in decline and the average British holiday maker barely flies at all. 48% of the population did not take a single flight in 2019.

So that leaves us with the 15% of frequent fliers who take 70% of the flights. One single transatlantic flight emits the equivalent of 17% of the total annual emissions of the average brit. It’s just plain unfair that the rest of us have to pay for all that jet setting of a few people with our future safety.

The Flight Free and fly less movements have done great work to bring these issues to the public attention. But what about people who aren’t able to go flight free but still want to do their bit? The answer is to fly smart…

Remember – we are currently on a critical trajectory to over 3 degrees warming which does mean the end of civilisation as we know it. Radically reducing your emissions is critical but thinking and planning to fly once or twice per year instead five or six times year will still make a big impact which we’ll all be grateful for.

Our top tips to fly smart

1. What is your trip for? If you’re stressed and just need a break will a spa hotel in the British countryside do the job just as well (and perhaps better) than a long weekend in Rio de Janeiro? Staycations are often more relaxing and they give the British economy a boost.

2. If you’re hankering to see the world that’s ok too – no-one wants you to travel less, just travel better. Can you go away less often but for longer periods of time? A return to the two week vacation once per year instead of city hopping four or five times year would cut down a huge amount of emissions.

3. Can you take the train or ferry? Train travel is much more adventurous and you get to meet more people and see more sights. Cheap flights are currently highly subsidised and the price of train fares has just been hiked up by the government, so cost is a consideration. If you can afford to pay that little extra you’ll get a big thank you from the rest of us.

4. If you decide that you do really have to fly, get fussy about which airline you’ll travel with. Some airlines have upgraded their fleets and burn less CO2. Virgin Atlantic is the best of the British whereas British Airways if positively filthy and tested worst of all the aircraft included in the study. Biofuels contribute to deforestation so don’t be mugged into thinking that’s the answer either.

There are new technologies on the horizon so we can all fly clean in the future but until the industry seriously invest in research and development the only feasible way of preventing planetary meltdown is to fly smart or best of all stay grounded.

If you need to fly, fly smart

Our top tips to fly smart