Focus of work
The government’s greenlight for aviation growth is highly dangerous, so Possible has got a better plan: a route map to achieve the demand reduction needed to 2030 in the fairest way, moving frequent flyers towards train travel (and getting rid of private jets and frequent flyer programmes), while protecting occasional flights for people who already fly rarely.
Just a small group of people take most of the flights. To win the required reduction in air travel, it needs to be shown that this can be done in a way that’s fair and has public support. This means cutting the highest and most wasteful air travel emissions, while moving to cleaner forms of transport to ensure that people can still enjoy travelling. Possible knows where aviation emissions and demand reduction need to be by 2030 – so now they’re going to produce a plan to get there fairly and a detailed map of the destination. They’ll use this to run a campaign to get decision-makers on board with the need for aviation demand management, a frequent flyer levy and a modal shift away from plane travel, both in the crucial policy-making period in the run-up to the election and with the new government.
Impact
- Set out in detail how the reduction in air miles flown that’s needed to protect the climate could be achieved by targeting the most excessive emissions, with a focus on behaviour change by frequent flyers.
- Use this to build a positive vision for the changes needed to travel habits and travel policies to get aviation into line with climate targets, and highlight that the majority of the population, who already fly rarely if ever, would be unaffected.
- Engage with policy makers, government and industry around these results and campaign for positive policies to fairly constrain demand for flights.