Extremists pile pressure on green companies

Comment by Jeremy Skidmore (www.jeremyskidmore.com)  

Flying the green flag and working in the travel industry is becoming increasingly difficult as online agent responsibletravel.com – a contradiction in terms according to many at Heathrow – is finding out.

Increasingly, those of us who fly frequently for business and pleasure are being portrayed as the evil destroyers of this planet, despite the questionable amount of damage done to the environment by flying.

I’ve already made it clear (and received a fair amount of abuse) for voicing my opinion that this is a complete nonsense. The responsibility for reducing carbon emissions lies with government and big business, not the beleagured man on the street, who is expected to carry the can for everything.

But where do you sit if you are a ‘green’ travel company? A few years ago it was easy, because responsible travel just meant putting something back into communities by using local restaurants and shopping in markets while abroad.

I would strongly recommend those actions, not least because it gives you a far richer experience than just sitting in your five-star hotel.

But the goalposts have moved now, with environmental campaigners arguing that all flying is evil.

I like – although I don’t always agree with – responsibletravel.com founder Justin Francis because he comes across as a genuine man who believes in his cause. But he must now be getting splinters from sitting on the fence trying to portray his green credentials and support tourism.

In a statement this week, Justin points out how vital tourism is for the developing world and that if we stopped flying tomorrow, a major global recession would result. Quite right. In a stroke we would destroy the livelihoods of millions of people.

But he also says we should have a coherent strategy to reduce flying. But I don’t think it’s realistic to turn back the clock on progress.

Instead there should be very strong tax incentives for airlines to develop fuel efficient aircraft (something Justin agrees with) and if anyone should pay to offset carbon emissions, it should be travel businesses through their profits, not the already over-taxed individual.

And I strongly object to Justin’s call for government to raise tax to a level where the number of flights falls. This will simply lead to a large slice of the public being unable to afford to fly, while the rich are able to rack up a carbon footprint until their hearts are content. That’s simply a return to the bad old days.

But the major flaw is that any revenue raised is not even used for environmental projects, but instead goes into the general coffers. As I’ve said before, Treasury money is used for fighting wars which creates an enormous carbon footprint.

And, as far as the Heathrow campaign is concerned, how many of the protestors are genuinely concerned about the planet and have the courage of their convictions, and how many of them are just loners looking for a cause?

I don’t know the answer to that. It may be that they are all genuine. But it would be interesting to interview them in five years’ time and find out how many have been on flights in the intervening period.

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