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University of Otago professor James Higham, a sustainable tourism expert is calling out New Zealand’s extreme aviation emitters.
Air New Zealand revealed its most frequent flyer took 230 flights in 2021. That person flew 96,121km last year alone.
Frequent flyers are the cause of the problem says Massey University applied mathematics professor Robert McLachlan.
He co-authored a recent report looking at how New Zealand can reduce its aviation emissions.
In 2018, our aviation emissions per capita were the sixth-highest in the world.
McLaughlan says the tricky part is deciding just how much flying is too frequent. That’s when we, the collective masses of us in cattle class, come in.
Globally, aviation is responsible for around three percent of carbon emissions. In New Zealand, it represents 12 percent.
“We fly a lot,” says Paul Callister, who co-authored the report with McLachlan.
For domestic travel, there’s no comprehensive, high-speed rail alternative. For international travel, our geographic isolation means we have to go a long way to get anywhere.
That’s where understanding emissions comes in.
A return flight from Auckland to London emits seven tonnes of carbon per person. That’s about the same as an average household’s emissions for the whole year. Therefore it’s important for those trips to be carefully considered.
“I know people who have got kids overseas who go to Europe once a year to see them, and then the kids come home for Christmas,” Callister says.
“That’s a level that’s just not sustainable.”
The broader challenge is for all of us to change the way we fly, says Higham.
“I’m not saying stop flying. But rather than flying long-haul to Europe once a year, every year, can we fly to Europe every other year? If we can, then we immediately halve our long-haul emissions.”
He is encouraging New Zealanders to think about consuming air travel in a more conscious way. An option is to use carbon footprint calculators to see how the impact of air travel compares to other activities.
It’s called being “morally engaged to climate change,” Higham says.
Their comments come after heat came on Taylor Swift who one of the world’s jet-setting celebs for their air travel habits.
She and her personal aircraft have racked up 170 flights in the first 200 days of this year. Those journeys emitted 8,294 tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere.
That’s over a thousand times the emissions most New Zealanders produce in a year from all activities.
A recent study found just one percent of people are responsible for half the world’s aviation emissions.
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