We need to talk about travel
Few conversations about what we can do to tackle the climate crisis are fun. Chats about how we get around can be particularly uncomfortable.
If you've chatted with friends or family about how we can respond to the climate crisis - or if exploring this kind of thing is something you do in your job - you'll be familiar with having uncomfortable conversations about travel.
So many conversations about things we can do to reduce the climate impacts of everyday activities are challenging because they strike at the heart of who we are and who we see ourselves as - our identity.
This is certainly true when it comes to talking about how we get around. How we get to work. The arrangements for taking our kids to school. How we do our shopping. The holidays we choose to take.
It's very easy for people to become defensive - and it's not difficult for people to find lots of often very good reasons which explain why they make one choice and not another. Or why they think they often have no choice at all.
I've been thinking about this again this week in the light of various announcements around transport in this country. The 50% increase in the cap on bus fares. The freezing - once again - of fuel duty. The paltry investment in active travel schemes. The small increase in Air Passenger Duty (with more - but still not enough - taxation on private jets) - and the ongoing refusal to tackle the major issue of the massive climate impacts of frequent flyers by introducing a frequent flyer levy.
Seeing this primarily as an individual problem isn’t helpful.
I’ve worked on a lot of behaviour change campaigns over the years and I’m clear that each of us as citizens has a role to play.
We can often make different decisions, adopt different habits, make changes to how we live. But transport is one very good example of where we need leadership - with national and local governments around the world investing, and making decisions around taxation, that help us to get around in ways that are less environmentally damaging.
We've been reminded yet again this week of the urgency of all of this. Unimaginable devastation in south east Spain. A part of the world I know well - you may well do too. Like me you might have gone there at some time in the past on a cheap flight.
We can each make different choices. Just as I’ve since chosen to fly less.
But as “working people” we need help from our politicians. Otherwise we either just carry on as we are - or we waste energy pointing the finger at other people, who are often making quite rational decisions.
Yet once again this week we’ve been reminded of the urgency for action - at pace and at scale. We need things to change - and we need politicians to step up.
PS - you may have noticed that I’ve changed the name of my newsletter back to The Social Business - which was the name of my blog - in its various forms - over many years. I explained more here: