This list is part of a series of features on sustainable travel edited by Forum for the Future founder director Jonathon Porritt…
1. Climate change is not hype
The earth’s climate is anything but simple. It is influenced by factors as varied as ocean currents, volcanic eruptions, solar activity and the growth of microscopic creatures in the oceans.
However, humans are having a discernible impact. By burning coal, oil and gas for industry and transport, to heat homes and workplaces and produce food, we are increasing the level of greenhouse gases. These trap heat from the sun, and human activity that would otherwise be lost to space is causing the atmosphere to warm up.
2. Humans are responsible
Here are some of the key scientific institutions who agree that climate change is happening, that it is caused by human activity, and that it poses severe risks to humanity, unless action is taken…
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- The Royal Society
- The US National Academies
- The World Meteorological Organization
3. Global warming is already here
The 10 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1997 and the world has not been as warm as it is now for 1,000 years or more. World temperatures have varied, and climates changed in the past, but not at the current rate.
However, the world has undergone periods of extreme change in the distant geological past that have led to the extinction of most living species.
4. We need to act quickly
To stand a reasonable chance of avoiding dangerous climate change – resulting in irreversible impacts such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet – we need to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the next five years.
5. The longer we wait, the more it will cost
The International Energy Agency estimates the cost of making the changes necessary to avoid dangerous climate change at $10 trillion between 2010 and 2030.
The good news is that lower spending on energy bills could offset that investment. Every year of delay, however, would add $500 billion to the bill.
6. Government targets are backed by law
The UK has set a legally binding commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 34% of the 1990 level by 2020, and by 80% in 2050.
In 2007, the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions were 18.4% below 1990 levels – mainly due to a shift from coal to gas-fuelled power stations in the 1990s – so there is still a way to go. The contribution from transport has risen over the same period.
7. We need a worldwide deal
Environment ministers and officials are meeting at a UN conference in Copenhagen in December to try to agree a global deal that it is hoped will avoid dangerous climate change.
8. Every destination will be affected
We will see more extreme weather events such as hurricanes, rising sea levels, changing rainfall patterns, increased forest fires, more heatwaves and water shortages, shorter winters and new distributions of disease, all reshaping travel across the world.
9. Society’s response will shape the travel industry
Climate change will provoke a response from governments, companies, individuals and society. The travel and tourism industry will have to navigate through this, as well as the physical impacts of climate change.
There will be new regulations, travel will have to bear the cost of carbon taxes and emissions trading, and consumer behaviour might change as the impact of climate change becomes more obvious.
Support for the cost of environmental damage being reflected in the price of travel is also likely to increase. In 2004, a survey suggested one in three people thought the price of an air ticket should reflect the environmental damage caused by flying.
This year, almost half those surveyed thought air fares should reflect aviation’s contribution to climate change and only one-quarter disagreed.
10. Travel is carbon intensive
A return flight to New York for one passenger produces about the same impact on climate as one year’s motoring in an average UK car.
Vicky Murray and Iain Watt, Forum for the Future