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May 2, 2007 - Flights of fancy?

If Jeremy Clarkson is my number 1 unsustainable bete-noir, then Michael O’Leary (Ryan Air) runs in pretty close. He is just so full of it – unsustainability, that is.

So imagine my sense of near panic as I find myself feeling vaguely supportive of some of the things he has been saying lately. Not the ignorant, belligerent denial about climate change, nor the astonishing assumption that everybody has a god-given right to fly anywhere in the world at the lowest possible price regardless of the impact on anyone else. But he has got a point about another aspect of the debate: today’s new strain of deeply unattractive eco-Puritanism about flying, where even so much as thinking about getting on a plane is castigated as a heinous crime against human kind, against all future generations, and against amphibians the world over heading towards extinction.

I hate to admit it, but I think it may just be that we are beginning to get this a little out of proportion. If the received line from now on is a 100% “no-flying” as the proper way to behave in a carbon-constrained world, missing out completely on “less flying” or avoiding flying wherever possible, then won’t we be just pissing off an awful lot of people who are just beginning to get to grips with this new insight into their own carbon footprints?

Posted on May 2, 2007 9:36 AM | | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)

June 8, 2007 - A Branson pickle?

Richard Branson had one of those days yesterday. He flew back from Africa (doing stuff with one of his charities out there), launched a new Virgin train which will now run on 20% biodiesel, lobbied Gordon Brown (who was launching it with him), and then descended on the Cheltenham Science Festival to be subjected to an hour’s worth of questions from the Green Movement’s very own Jeremy Paxman (that’s me, apparently, according to David Cameron – but that’s another story!) and several hundred festival-goers keen to work out what’s put the green in the Branson brands.

Anyone feeling a bit gloomy about climate change and the state of the environment should be obliged to spend an hour with Richard Branson. This man does answers to problems like Cassandra did apocalyptic prophecy. Inadequate efforts on my part to flag up growing concerns about today’s biofuels bonanza (especially the really barmy stuff going on in the United States or Indonesia) were politely batted away as issues that could be dealt with relatively easily. I ended up feeling as if my reservations were somehow unworthy of me!

I’m not quite sure whether or not we really “nailed it” – the pros and cons of the biofuels debate are immensely complicated, and there are a lot of very sophisticated arguments along the way. But it was certainly uplifting stuff!

Posted on June 8, 2007 2:50 PM | | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

June 21, 2007 - List your flights!

Thanks to Chris and Caroline for the challenge ('Flights of fancy?'). No problem about that (see below) as I believe any activists / champions in this area need to be up front about their own carbon footprint. As you’ll see, I fly a lot. 21 times in the last year, in fact, or 42 flights in total.

There are no personal flights included in the list below, as I have taken none, but as Founder Director of Forum for the Future, Co-Director of The Prince of Wales’s Business & the Environment Programme – both organisations having a substantial international reach – and Chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission, with a predominantly UK remit, there are many times in the year when I have little choice other than to fly.

There’s rather more too it than that. I have spent 35 years getting quite good at articulating this sustainability stuff and (hopefully) inspiring others to get things sorted out themselves. I am nearly 57 years old now, and have decided to just ‘go for it’ for the next three years, to help press every (influential) button I can during that time. So, once I have judged that an opportunity is worth pursuing (strategically), then how I get there is a secondary – albeit still very important – issue. When I can use video-conferencing, I do. When I can use the train in the UK, and time allows, I always do. I don’t have a car.

Do I feel guilty about all that? Absolutely not. Do I feel responsible for making sure that decisions are taken conscientiously and that the resulting impacts are managed properly? Absolutely! That’s why all three of the organisations mentioned above take offsetting extremely seriously – not as a perfect solution, it has to be said, but not the kind of flaky, guilt-assuaging cop-out that so many people think offsets represent.

JP Flights: July 2006-June 2007

UK
Aberdeen x3
Belfast x4
Edinburgh x2

Europe
Oslo x1
Amsterdam x2
Zurich x1
Crete x2
Malaga x1
Berlin x1

International
Hong Kong / Beijing x1
Houston x1
Vancouver x1
Cape Town x1

Posted on June 21, 2007 12:53 PM | | Comments (24) | TrackBacks (0)

July 18, 2007 - Manchester to London by Air?

One thing both Caroline and I will be taking heart from is the news that the Manchester-London air route has seen a 10% reduction in passengers over the last year. The Manchester Airport Group attributes this to the increasingly lively debate about the impact of flying on climate change (see above!) and other environment issues, thanks to some rather smart marketing by Virgin - not only how much better it is travelling on the upgraded west coast mainline, but how much more environment-friendly. Interestingly, the Manchester Airport Group thinks things can only get worse (from their point of view), despite their recent decision to become a completely carbon-neutral airport by 2015.

This decision clearly had little impact on Macclesfield Borough Council, which has persuaded a high-level Planning Enquiry that Manchester Airport should not be allowed to expand onto surrounding (Green Belt) land – despite every effort on the part of Manchester City Council itself (which is the biggest shareholder in Manchester Airport Group) to secure planning permission to enable a massive increase in flights. The big guys don’t always win!

Posted on July 18, 2007 9:36 AM | | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

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