The French may be worried about the consequences of global warming, but several opinion studies show that few of those who travel by plane are willing to give up this means of transport that emits many greenhouse gases (GHG). According to a survey published in May 2023 by Professor Pégase of the Montpellier Business School, 67% of the thousand respondents said that they were not at all ashamed of choosing to fly; only 12% stated the opposite. Results similar to an Ipsos survey for The Sunday newspapercarried out among a sample of people between 18 and 34 years old in the same period: the plane is the second preferred means of transport of those surveyed (54%), just behind the private car (65%).
This reflects a certain reluctance to give up the exceptional mobility that the airline sector offers, particularly for the most mobile people (young people, workers without children, high-income households), even if they are aware of the need to rapidly reduce GHG emissions. . “I can’t give up the annual plane trip. Without that, I wouldn’t have the courage to keep the other resolutions, that’s my reward.”declared a young traveler in World in 2019, in a topic dedicated to the guilt of “green” travelers when flying.
Civil aviation is difficult to decarbonize because of its addiction to kerosene, but also because two-thirds of its impact on the climate comes from other factors, including the formation of contrails.
While waiting for stricter regulation of the sector by the States, the world offers a calculator for anyone who wants to continue traveling by plane but is concerned about how to change certain aspects of their lifestyle to individually “counteract” the emissions resulting from their trip. To visualize the efforts to be made (and especially their duration), simply enter a destination among the hundred proposed.
December 8, 2023 edition : we replace the data of “switch to renewable electricity” by “Use only public transportation”because in the French case, CO emissions2-eq related to electricity are already low.
